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dwelling, and such facilities shall include a food store, sink and waste
pipe, water supply and utility services. Such facilities shall not be
installed on a common landing, and regard shall be had to the number
of rooms occupied when determining the size of the food store.
Under Section 12 of the Act the local authority may specify the number
of persons who may occupy the rooms in this type of house. The approved
standard under Section 12 is one person per 50 square feet of bedroom
floor area, provided that no account shall be taken of any floor area
over which the ceiling height is less than 5 feet.
Section 12 also provides that no person shall permit the house to be
occupied by such a number of persons that it is not possible to provide
for the proper separation of the sexes.
RE-HOUSING ON HEALTH GROUNDS
This subject was dealt with at some length in my report for 1955.
During 1956 a detailed review was carried out of all cases in which a
health factor was involved—213 in all. In the course of the review it
became evident that the more urgent cases could be divided into the
following four groups:—
Group 1—Serious medical conditions.
(a) Acute pulmonary tuberculosis.
(b) Other medical conditions.
Group 2—Chronic medical or surgical conditions which have crippled
the patient.
Group 3—Old persons needing ground floor accommodation because
of infirmity possibly with illness.
Group 4—Serious overcrowding causing undesirable mixing of sexes
with its accompanying moral danger.
Thirty cases were then selected to illustrate these groups and a report
made to the Housing Management Sub-Committee to draw attention to
the need for some improvement in the degree of priority given to such
cases. The points scheme was revised in certain respects, giving the
Medical Officer of Health power to recommend the award of up to
fifteen health points according to the urgency of the case. This was a
welcome change since the rigidity of the former scheme (which provided
for one award of ten points only) sometimes proved to be embarrassing
in its application. Other changes resulted in a slight reduction in the
number of points in the majority of cases but this was more than offset
by the increased maximum of fifteen health points. As the Housing
Management Sub-Committee is still able to award up to fifteen "discretionary"
points the Committee is better able to deal with cases of
serious medical need.
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