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96
Discretionary grants are available for a wide range of improvements,
including conversions to self-contained dwellings, to enable houses to
be modernised and brought up to a "twelve point" standard. They arc
paid solely at the discretion of the Council, have a maximum of £400 for
each dwelling, and are made under the Housing (Financial Provisions)
Act, 1958.
The Housing Act, 1961 amended the House Purchase and Housing
Act 1959 so that, where improvements are made with the aid of a
standard grant, the water closet must now wherever practical be internal.
This brings the two forms of grant into line with regard to this amenity.
The interest in discretionary grants in 1961 declined somewhat
compared with 1960, especially during the last quarter of the year while,
on the other hand, there was a small increase in the number of applications
for standard grants. The latter form of grant enables the owner
of a house which has some of the necessary amenities to obtain assistance
in providing the remainder however small the cost, whereas the discretionary
grant requires that the work shall cost at least £100. Both
forms of grant require that any repairs that are necessary to make the
house fit shall be carried out, the requirements being more stringent in
the case of discretionary grants. The majority of applications come
from owner-occupiers, but now that the permissible rent increase for
improvements has been raised from 8% to 121%, more owners of
tenanted property may be encouraged to take advantage of the scheme.
With regard to the volume of work involved in dealing with the
Council's house purchase loans it only needs mention that in 1959
approximately 600 properties, a record number, were surveyed and
reported on by the inspectors during the year for house purchase loans
made by the Council. In many of these cases schedules of work were
agreed and the repairs supervised and approved in order to make the
premises "in all respects fit for habitation" as required by s.43 of the
Housing (Financial Provisions) Act 1958 under which loans are made.
This work increased year by year and in 1963, 958 cases were dealt with.
Moveable dwellings
During 1962 the overall position in London as far as homeless
families were concerned became acute and in an effort to ameliorate this,
the County Council decided to set up prefabricated moveable dwellings
on various vacant sites. These dwellings are connected to the main
services (water, electricity and drainage) and they, and their surroundings
have to conform to regulations unofficially agreed between the metropolitan
boroughs. Four sites had been licensed in Lewisham by the
end of the year, with room for 52 dwellings.
This outline of housing work must of necessity be incomplete,
but it is hoped that it will give an indication of some of the factors that
the Health Department has to deal with. Housing work is very complex
and there is an ever growing tendancy for some public health inspectors
to specialise in this field. The Housing Act of 1964 has greatly extended
the powers available, particularly in connection with compulsory
improvements dealing with houses in multi-occupation and developments
to the improvement grant schemes with a view to making them more
attractive.