View report page

90
Once more in 1925 the doctor reported on the housing conditions in
the Borough as follows:—
"The requirement of the Ministry of Health for a statement under
this heading can be best met by the following extract from a report made
in 1926, when the question of erecting the Grove Park Estate was under
consideration:—
At the beginning may I say that it is exceedingly difficult to
form any true estimate of the existing need of houses in the Borough
below a reasonable standard of fitness, and also it is difficult to
produce exact figures of the number of premises overcrowded
without a census of the worst portions of the district being taken.
It may safely be assumed, however, that the worst cases of hardship
caused by overcrowded conditions are present in one, two and
three-roomed tenements. It will be readily understood that if the
number of persons housed in those tenements averages two or more
for each room, difficulties in finding adequate sleeping accommodation
are inevitable.
The Census of 1921 affords the only actual statistics available
for the Borough and the following has been extracted from the
official Returns:—
813 families, consisting of 2 or more persons, were occupying
one-roomed tenements.
761 families, consisting of 4 or more persons, were occupying
two-roomed tenements.
784 families consisting of 6 or more persons, were occupying
three-roomed tenements.
From the above it may be estimated in round figures that some
10,000 persons were in 1921 badly housed.
We have no certain means of judging as to the extent to which
these conditions have improved or otherwise, although the statistics
obtained by routine house-to-house inspection of a certain type of
house may be considered to afford some indication of present
conditions. We have on our register 135 streets in which it is
customary to carry out a periodical inspection, comprising about
5,500 houses. During the past two years 2,600 of these houses
have been inspected and the results of our enquiries recorded.
It was found that 845 of this number contained two families and
204 contained three or more families. It was also ascertained that
450 families living in tenements consisting of three rooms or less
averaged two or more persons per room. If it can be assumed that
similar conditions exist in the remaining 2,900 houses on our register
it follows that about 950 families in these streets alone average two
or more persons per room, and there is no doubt that to a lesser
extent similar conditions exist in houses of a better class than those
to which routine inspection has been applied and in respect of which
no statistics are obtainable.