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vi
These two new housing schemes are managed by women property
managers trained in Octavia Hill methods and appointed by the Council
within the past eighteen months. Great success has attended these
appointments which appeared at the time somewhat of an innovation
in the City's housing administration. The property managers get in
close touch with families before they are rehoused. They learn" their
difficulties and encourage and help them to maintain a standard worthy
of their new dwellings. The majority of people living in slum houses
are the victims of their environment. In those cases where a family
occupies a single room it is almost impossible to maintain a clean and
orderly home, and it is very gratifying to find that the number who do
not react to their new environment and fail in establishing a reign of
cleanliness and tidiness is not greater than 1 per cent.
I have attempted in this report to set down a faithful narrative of
the circumstances and activities concerned with the health of the City
during the year. The fact that this report was begun in February and
is published in July is an indication of the manner in which the interruptions
occasioned by the day to day work of the Council has interfered with
its preparation.
The work of health administration continues to increase year by year
although the depression in economic spheres continues. This increase,
partly attributable to Parliamentary legislation, is also a reflexion of the
growing interest in the public health exhibited by all classes of society.
The comparatively recent and lively discussion in the Press over the
Battersea Power Station with the rousing of public opinion in defence
of an unpolluted atmosphere is a remarkable example of this movement.
The Fulham Power Station public enquiry in December provided a fitting
stage for controversy. The circumstances of this enquiry and its findings
are of the greatest importance to public health and are somewhat fully
discussed. The Council has taken a prominent part in trying to keep
the air of our City free from further pollution and is accumulating records,
interesting so far, but likely to be of greater value in the future when
these great power stations are pouring forth volumes of gases daily
from the thousands of tons of coal which they will consume. The graphic
record of atmospheric suspended impurities (under Smoke abatement)
deserves attention.
Judging from the number of plans submitted the building industry
in the City has been busier than last year, 891 compared with 877 in
1929. In 1926 plans numbered 724 with a progressive increase each