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63
In areas in which housing conditions are extremely bad, it is usual to find that the death
rates and infantile mortality rates are definitely high. It is important, therefore, to note that
in the area in question these rates are particularly low, in fact lower than those of the Borough
as a whole. The statistics therefore give considerable support to the contention that the pictnre
portrayed in the report is not a correct one.
A number of the premises described in detail in the report have recently been visited, but
the conditions found differ so materially from the description given in the report as to justify
the statement that the representation is not a fair nor an accurate one.
The report also suggests that the houses in a number of areas, some of them of considerable
extent, should be demolished. In making this suggestion, due care does not appear to have been
taken to differentiate between evils arising from defects in the houses, those due to poverty and
overcrowding, and those due to neglect, carelessness, or bad habits of the tenants. Demolition
is not a universal remedy to be applied in every case irrespective of the cause. With few exceptions,
the houses in question are not in such a condition, neither is there in their arrangement
such a deficiency of light and air as would justify condemnation.
Many of the bad conditions described are really financial in origin, the tenants being unable
to afford the rent for the amount of accommodation that is really necessary.
An unskilled labourer, at times out of work, and handicapped by a large number of young
children, is, at present, practically compelled to live in a state of overcrowding. Very often such
families live in basement rooms, as these are cheaper, and the combination of poverty, underground
rooms, and overcrowding usually leads to dirty, verminous, and unwholesome conditions.
Condemnation and demolition of houses will not remedy such defects while the causes producing
them remain. Such families can only obtain adequate housing accommodation by some form of
rent assistance, and the Housing Act of 1930 permits this rent relief to those who need it and
for so long as they need it.
In a certain number of cases mentioned in the report the bad conditions are definitely due
to the faults and habits of the tenants. Neither sympathy nor help should be extended to
families living under conditions of gross overcrowding, with grown-up boys and girls sharing
the same room, although the family income is such that they can well afford to pay for adequate
accommodation. The service of a notice is the proper remedy in these cases.
It would also appear to be necessary to draw attention to the fact that dirty, destructive,
and undesirable tenants do exist, and that the slum maker is quite as difficult a problem as
the slum. It is far too frequently assumed that all tenants are satisfactory, and all landlords
are neglectful and rapacious; this is not so.
I am, Ladies and Gentlemen,
Your obedient servant,
G. Sowden
Medical Officer of Health.
Underground rooms. A number of those which were illegally occupied were closed
during the year. At present it is only possible to deal with the worst cases as alternative
accommodation (and within the means of the occupants) is difficult to obtain.
In some cases, where two basement rooms are occupied by a family, it is possible to
secure compliance with statutory requirements by using the back room for sleeping purposes
instead of the front or vice versa.
From a health point of view it is doubtful if any material benefit is derived, as a room
which is considered to be unfit for sleeping purposes would appear also to be unfit for living
purposes, but at present the Underground Room Regulations only apply to rooms used for
sleeping purposes.