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workshops. 29
for "other defects or nuisances" showed a great increase over the totals for the preceding years, due to
the inclusion for the first time of items liable to be dealt with under the Housing Acts, to which the
attention of owners was drawn by special letters.
Overcrowding.—Nine (9) tenements, comprising 10 rooms, were reported as overcrowded. In
6 cases the overcrowding was abated after service of notice, and in 2 by voluntary removal. A
summons was issued in the remaining case, but after adjourning the hearing five times, in order to
give the occupier further opportunity of finding other accommodation, the Magistrate finally
adjourned the case sine die.
There is reason for thinking that overcrowding is on the increase, but the lack of vacant rooms
renders it impossible for families to find better accommodation, and only in very serious cases is action
taken by the Department.
Annual Cleansing.-—-It being impossible for the two Tenement Houses Inspectors to inspect the
whole of the registered houses for this purpose, arrangements were made for those houses to be
inspected which had not been dealt with the previous year, as well as others in certain streets in
the Clarendon Street, Waverley Road, and Amberley Road Areas. By the adoption of this method
an annual inspection of the worst streets and a biennial inspection of all other streets on the Register
is ensured.
Last year, out of 1,404 registered houses, a complete inspection was made of 915. The defects,
etc., discovered, necessitated the service of 3,856 notices, including 406 letters relating to matters
liable to be dealt with under the Housing Acts. In 19 instances legal proceedings had to be instituted
before compliance with notices could be secured.
Common Lodging Houses.—There are 5 houses in Kilburn Lane, accommodating 128 men and
37 women. Inspection is made by the Department once a year on receiving the Notices of Application
for renewal of licences, and by the Officers of the County Council at other times.
No cases of infectious disease occurred during the year among the users of these houses. Three
deaths were registered locally, one each from pulmonary tuberculosis, cancer and kidney disease.
Inland Revenue Acts.—Four (4) certificates for exemption or reduction of the Inhabited
House Duty—covering 9 flats—were issued during the year. In no case was an application refused.
Increase of Rent and Mortgage Interest (Restrictions) Act, 1920.—The applications for
certificates under Section 2 (2) of the Act numbered 33. Of these 27 resulted in the issue of certificates,
1 was abandoned, and 5 were deferred until the current year.
L.C.C. Houses.—Despite the fact that the lists of applications for premises on the L.C.C. Estates
were officially closed, efforts were made by the Department in seventeen (17) instances of particularly
unsatisfactory conditions for accommodation on such Estates. It is believed that 3 of the applications
were successful.
WORKSHOPS.
Registration.—In 1913, 200 new premises were added to the Register, and in 1914, 163. The
additions during the years 1919 to 1922 were 114, 92, 119 and 93 (in 1922). The removals from the
Register numbered 293 in 1913 and 138 in 1914. Since 1919 the numbers have been 35, 174, 247
and 210. The foregoing figures are illustrative of the financial difficulties of the years since the War.
At the end of 1913 there were 1,421 premises on the Register, a total which increased to 1,446
at the end of 1914. Since the latter year the total has fallen, and was 1,152 at the end of last year.
That total included 193 factories (21 being laundries), 558 workshops (including 7 " domestic "),
37 workplaces, and 343 premises of outworkers in which no employees were working. In comparison
with 1913, the factories show an increase of 65—but a diminution of 11 laundries—workshops a
decrease of 343 (9 of "domestic"), and an increase of 44 "single workers," with a further change that
last year all persons in this category were "outworkers"—a fact not hitherto observed.
The Home Office forwarded 19 notices of new workshops during the year, of which 13 had already
been placed on the Department's Register when the notices were received.
At the end of 1913 the Register showed 8,435 persons employed: 4,184 women, 629 young
persons and 3,672 men. At the end of 1922 the total had fallen to 6,239, viz., 2,856 women, 247 young
persons, and 3,136 men. The figures for 1922 show a total reduction of 26 per cent, for all workers—
15 per cent. in the case of men, 32 in that of women, and 61 in that of young persons.
Outworkers.—Local employers forwarded 41 lists in February of last year and 42 in August.
In 1919 and 1920 the lists numbered 39 at both seasons of the year. The addresses included in the
83 lists numbered 461, of which 361 were in outlying districts. The local homeworkers (100) were
35 fewer than the number returned in 1921.
From outlying districts 69 lists (433 addresses) were received, 40 of those lists coming from the
City of London (18), Westminster (12), and Kensington (10). The total number of outworkers on
the Register at the end of the year was 604, an increase of 53 above the total at the end of 1921. At
the end of 1919 the total was 675, the highest on record.