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much of the property is owned by persons who, by reason of the heavy
interest charges on mortgages, and the fact that they have no other
means, cannot carry out the ordinary repairs, as required from time to
time.
As previously stated in other Repoits, good owners assist the
Council's officers in every way, but the same, unfortunately, cannot be
said of bad owners. The Medical Officer of Health, therefore,
emphasises the necessity for drastic action being taken by the Council
in those comparatively few cases, in which neither persuasion nor
formal legal notices have been successful in securing the carrying out
of repairs, that are absolutely necessary to render the houses " reasonably
fit in all respects for human habitation."
Otherwise, apart from this consideration, the report of the two
Housing Inspectors is a most satisfactory one, of which the Council
has every reason to be proud.
It may be added that, in addition to the work connected with
carrying out the Housing Acts requirements, the Inspectors have had
to devote a considerable amount of time in making investigations
necessary to obtain particulars for returns required, in regard to vacant
houses, houses capable of being converted into flats, basement houses
and unhealthy areas, etc., but the results of such work do not lend
themselves for tabulation in statistical form.
There is still great need for new housing accommodation for the
working classes (new additional houses). Houses and tenements, let
at weekly rentals, are becoming fewer in numbers, as the result of
business premises being built or enlarged on sites which formerly were
covered with dwelling houses, e.g., the Stamford Street and White Hart
Street areas, which are being transformed from residential areas intobusiness
areas.
The last published 1921 Census Returns show that the RegistrarGeneral's
decreasing Lambeth population (estimated from previous
censuses) requires amendment—the present population being an
increasing one. There are suitable building sites available within
the Borough in addition to the Bloomfield Site and the Prince's Road
Workhouse Site that have been secured. The Princes's Road Workhouse
Site is specially a cause for congratulation as it is the Inner
Wards or Districts that require special attention at the present time, and
the cheaper the houses or tenements are to rent, the better, subject, of
course, to such houses or tenements being sanitarily and constructionally
fit and large enough for people with families.*
* Negotiations are in hand with regard to the remainder ot the White Hart Street
are; being purchased for the building thereon of working-class houses.