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103
London County Council Estates—continued.
Old Oak 2
Ossulston 2
Roehampton 1
St. Helier (including Morden) 15
Shelton Street 3
Stockwell 3
Totterdown 2
Vassal Road (including Cowley) 1
Wormholt 3
Watling 4
— 138
Total 283
Two hundred and ninety applications for rehousing (other than from
basements) have been investigated and reported upon by the Medical
Officer of Health to the Housing Committee.
Of the 145 families rehoused by the City Council, 67 were from unfit
basements, 19 from houses in clearance areas, and 59 from houses in which
the conditions were unsatisfactory or for reasons of health. Forty-four
of the rehoused families were overcrowded. By means of transfer to
more suitable accommodation, 11 cases of overcrowding were also
alleviated in the City Council's flats.
Unfit Basements.—In addition to the 67 families rehoused by the
City Council, the London County Council rehoused 11, whilst 78 families
were rehoused by other housing associations or themselves obtained other
accommodation.
The City Council's programme of housing improvement as regards
houses for clearance, demolition of individual unfit dwellings, the
closure and subsequent reconditioning of basements as unfit parts of
buildings and the relief of overcrowding has continued uninterruptedly
though perhaps unobtrusively. Very few if any of the old decayed type
of houses suitable only for clearance now remain, while there are very few
streets either in Victoria or St. John Wards where basements have not
been improved. Nowadays, the general plea in applications for rehousing
concerns the health of one or more members of the family, e.g., too many
stairs to be climbed; or often it is the easily understood wish to obtain the
advantages of the lower rents in the Council dwellings. Applications