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(b) Ecclesiastical Commissioners.
The lack of alternative accommodation has prevented further
progress of the Commissioners' Rebuilding Scheme, but a considerable
amount of work has been carried out under provisional (informal)
schedules under Section 28 of the Housing, Town Planning, etc., Act,
1919, in Marsh Ward, viz.:—Ethelm Street (30 houses), and in
Brixton Ward, viz.:—Baker Street (32 houses), Chryssell Road (10
houses), Farrar Street (6 houses), Flaxman Road (20 houses),
Gordon Grove (4 houses), Kenbury Street (22 houses), and Normandy
Road (6 houses). At the corner of Ethelm Street and Cornwall
Road a new small block of tenement buildings has been built and
opened by the Commissioners, containing 6 tenements of 3 rooms
each. The scheme of reconstruction for the whole of Ethelm Street
and neighbouring streets and courts is reported to have been settled
by the Commissioners and will be carried out as soon as alternative
accommodation for the present occupiers of the existing houses
can be obtained.
With regard to Brixton Ward, 20 new houses have been erected
by the Commissioners in Cancell Road (Nos. 7 to 45 odd inclusive).
General Considerations.
It is satisfactory to be able again to report that owners generally,
throughout the Borough, are doing their best to carry out the Council's
Housing Inspectors' requirements, which are framed with a view
to avoiding any unnecessary or unreasonable expenditure. This is
an important point to emphasise, and represents a principle which
has been much appreciated by the owners concerned, in spite of the
fact that, in many instances, the necessary expense involved has
proved to be considerable.
The practice of a certain type of owner to acquire property
mainly on borrowed money, relying on a balance being left after the
interest and all expenses have been paid, is a fruitful cause of trouble,
when such properties happen to be situated in streets or courts,
which are scheduled for inspection.
The value of Section 28 of the Housing, Town Planning, etc.,
Act, 1919, from an administrative point of view cannot be gainsaid.