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94
The difficulty of enforcing existing legal requirements for underground rooms
owing to housing shortage was also emphasised and the City Council was reminded
that only the worst cases had been dealt with. It was pointed out that the requirement
of the Regulations as regards the angle of light was too theoretical and should
be modified ; also that as accommodation became available basement rooms should
be required to be let always in conjunction with a room or rooms on upper floors to
form a separate dwelling.
The proposals put forward by the Kensington Borough Council have essentially
the same object in view as those of the London County Council in 1929.
The Medical Officer of Health submitted a report on the Kensington Borough
Council's proposals, upon which the Public Health Committee expressed the following
views:—
It is acknowledged that basement dwellings generally are not the most satisfactory,
inasmuch that they do not permit the maximum of daylight or of free ventilation,
and many are prone to dampness. In modern dwellings of all types, basements are
very seldom planned, if they exist at all, as living rooms. They are usually storerooms
or boiler rooms, &c.
Proposal (a).—It has been the practice in Westminster for some years past to
make a schedule of all underground rooms decreed to be illegally occupied. House
to house inspections have been in progress for the past five or six years and details
are recorded as required by the Housing Consolidated Regulations of 1925. Many
of the houses recorded possess underground rooms, but so long as no nuisance requiring
action by the Sanitary Authority exists and there is no infringement of the law
regulating the use of such rooms there does not appear to be any advantage in
compiling separate records apart from the records of the houses already in existence.
The records so far made refer to houses of the working classes. The proposal requires
a survey of all underground rooms. This is a very wide reference and would, in
Westminster, imply a very extensive investigation requiring some years for completion,
and is in our opinion unnecessary. The survey should be limited to
underground rooms in houses to which the Housing Acts apply.
Proposal (b).—Considerations implying that a basement room is unfit for living
as well as for sleeping in should be laid down specifically as a basis on which a
Sanitary Authority might deem it desirable or necessary to proceed to formal
action.
Proposal (c).—If suitable criteria are laid down, there is no objection to the
owner being informed of the Sanitary Authority's decision as to the use of such
underground rooms and to his right to appeal to the Minister of Health against such
decision.
Proposals (d), (e) and (/).—If no appeal to the Minister is made or such appeal is
dismissed, there is no objection to the provision for a closing order prohibiting sleeping
and living in such room or rooms being made after the tenant has ceased to occupy it.
In Westminster it has been the custom for many years past to warn those who let
underground rooms for sleeping purposes that legal action will be taken by the
City Council against anyone who re-lets an illegal room after the occupant has left
or been rehoused. Only in one instance has this warning been disregarded ; legal
proceedings followed and a penalty was imposed.