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20
Housing Priority on Medical Grounds
During the year under review 2,003 (1,840) medical certificates or claims for priority in respect of
applications for re-housing or transfers were considered and assessed by a Principal Medical Officer.
Housing Finance Act 1972
The Housing Finance Act 1972 received the Royal Assent on 27th July and came into force during August.
It introduced a new system of housing subsidies, provided for rent rebate and rent allowance schemes and
made other provisions as to housing finance.
The Act also significantly amends the law about rents of private dwellings. Part III supersedes Part III of
the Housing Act 1969 and effects certain changes in the procedures whereby on the landlord's application,
qualification certificates may be issued for the conversion into regulated tenancies of those controlled
tenancies which reach the qualifying standard of amenity and repair.
Section 35 of the Act provides that controlled tenancies, other than those of dwellings notified unfit,
are to be brought out of rent control by a staged programme and the applicable dates in Greater London
are as follows:—
Rateable value of dwelling-house (as at 31st March, 1972) Applicable date
£95 or not more than £400 1st January, 1973
£80 or more but less than £95 1st July, 1973
£70 or more but less than £80 1st January, 1974
£60 or more but less than £70 1st July, 1974
£50 or more but less than £60 1st January, 1975
Less than £50 1st July, 1975
Local Land Charges
During the year 14,345 (12,703) formal enquiries were dealt with and reported upon. This number
includes 884 personal searches, which have shown a steady increase over the past few years.
"Personal searches" relates to the current practice of enquirers personally visiting each Council
department concerned with property matters to obtain an immediate answer to their enquiries, rather than
following the normal practice of completing a Land Charge enquiry form which is then circulated to
departments and returned to the enquirer within a period of 2 — 3 weeks.
It is thought that the "personal searches" practice is attributable to the increase in the number of
properties now being sold by auction and to "gazumping" which was particularly prevalent during 1972.
On occasions of property auctions it is not unusual for as many as twenty personal searches to be made in
one day, each enquirer demanding immediate attention, causing considerable disruption to the work of
the sections involved.
Tourism
It is estimated that Westminster's normal resident population (233,000), which increases each working
day to about 600,000 rises during the tourist season to well over 1,000,000 persons.
The environmental problems which may be created in the City by the successful tourist industry already
receive careful study. The continued rise which has been forecast in the numbers of overseas visitors who
come to London lends urgency to these studies.
Reliable figures are not yet available but the recent estimate given in a Greater London Council report
is that over £50 million is spent by our visitors in London's restaurants and cafes. This serves as a yardstick
indicating the extent of one vast environmental health problem facing the City Council's public health
inspectors in their endeavour to ensure compliance with satisfactory standards of food and catering hygiene.
Westminster also contains not only a very high proportion of the restaurants in London but it provides
more than half the hotel bedrooms. The majority of these bedrooms are provided in large well established
hotels which rarely present problems. The report 'Hotel Prospects to 1980' published by the Hotels and
Catering Economic Development Council shows that licensed hotels provide almost five times the amount
of hotel accommodation provided by unlicensed premises, which are usually the smaller type of hotel.