View report page

38
that the children sleep not only in living rooms shared by brothers
and sisters, but also by adults who may not be parents.
Affluence in this country has faded the memory of working
class mothers on extremely limited incomes, trying to live with
dignity under these circumstances while keeping the children clean,
respectably clothed and adequately fed. This is just what many
West Indian mothers that I meet are doing and I am impressed by
their courage.
During the time I have been in this appointment more and
more houses in the district have been put up for sale, and of these
a very large number have been bought by immigrants. It is inevitable,
therefore, that among the unsatisfactory landlord occupiers
a number will be immigrants.
This may appear to be an inflammatory remark but in view
of the fact that the awaited report of the Milner Holland Committee
is likely to confirm this, I feel it needs to be said and an explanation
of this situation given.
In this Borough many of the houses in question are the large
properties that for many years have been multi-occupied. In the
past the landlord has not usually been an occupier, and separate
floors were generally occupied by separate families. As these rooms,
or floors became vacant they were often filled on the recommendation
of other tenants in the house or street, and nearly always by
people of similar background.
In recent years, and with the sharp rise in prices of houses,
those with controlled tenants in occupation have been put on the
market as soon as a "flat" or rooms have become vacant. With the
influx of immigrants, whose need for accommodation has been
particularly acute, there has been a ready market for these properties,
which are within the price range they can aspire to, despite
the fact they may be lacking in amenities. Indigenous people, of
course, have the same opportunities for buying them but tend not
to be interested.
It is inevitable that with limited accommodation and shared
amenities and the sometimes unrealistic rents of controlled tenants,
many of the landlords come rapidly to resent their tenants.
Situations of this kind are sometimes exacerbated by differences
in habits and behaviour, or by apprehension, fear and sometimes
prejudice, on either or both sides.
A great deal of my time is spent trying to ease situations of
this kind, which often become so complex that it is difficult, if not
impossible to decide just where the blame lies. It also has to be
remembered that many controlled tenants are themselves living
in crowded conditions and have been on housing lists for long
periods with no immediate hope of being assisted.
Reflecting on the neighbourhood situation for the period I
have been in the post, one of the interesting developments has been
that, in the earlier years, when an immigrant bought a house (frequently
on a group basis) it was often easily identified by the
apparent lack of interest in the outside appearance of the property,
the windows and common usage parts generally. But there has been
a rather dramatic change, and they are now more frequently