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34
HOUSING
Housing Act, 1957
Clearance Areas.—Eighteen houses were represented under
Section 157 of the Housing Act, 1957; sixty-six houses were
demolished following declaration of Clearance Areas under Section
42 and a further 224 following compulsory acquisition under
Section 43 (2)
Closing Orders.—Under Section 157 of the Act, twelve individual
houses and two basements were represented for closure,
twelve Closing Orders were made under Section 17 (1) and one
Closing Order under Section 18.
Under Section 27, Closing Orders were determined in respect
of one house and one undertaking not to use a house was cancelled.
Housing Act, 1961
Houses in multiple occupation
Out of an estimated total of 15,000 houses in multiple occupation,
3,369 have now been fully inspected, 150 houses having been
visited this year for the first time. An analysis of the register shows
the occupation of the 3,369 houses to be as follows : —
Occupancies: 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10+
No. of houses: 1,643 868 385 183 116 76 43 28 27
A great deal of work has again been carried out during the past
year in spite of the resignation of one of the two technical assistants
in July. A replacement was obtained towards the end of the
year but by the time he had been trained it could be said that this
section was working only on half strength for the latter half of the
year.
The rate of initial inspections of premises has dropped unavoidably
due to the need for continual revisiting of properties under
surveillance and the number of staff available for this is only
sufficient to cover the number of properties already inspected.
Before any real progress can be made on initial inspections, it is
clear that additional staff will need to be engaged for this work.
The general practice is to try to get properties in multiple occupation
brought up to a standard acceptable to the Corporation by
informal action, and although a considerable amount of work
has been carried out by some owners voluntarily, others have not
been so co-operative, and consequently it has been necessary to
serve 108 notices under Section 16 of the Housing Act, 1961,
requiring the provision of means of escape from fire, and fiftyseven
notices under Section 15 of the Act requiring additional
facilities within the premises. Where owners do not comply with