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72
The number of cases of infectious disease reported in these houses was as follows—
diphtheria, 7 ; enteric fever, 5 ; erysipelas, 22 ; German measles, 4 ; scarlet-fever, 6 ; or 44 in all.
The number of deaths from various causes reported in these houses was 87.
The following table shows the number of common lodging-houses, the authorised number
of lodgers in such houses at the end of 1898, and the number of houses registered in each sanitary
district durinng the vear—

During the year 1898 there was change in the ownership of 43 common lodging-houses, and
in each instance such change was made the occasion of a survey of the house, with a view to the
requirement of any alteration found to be necessary. In this manner much improvement was
effected in many common lodging-houses, but the power to impose the necessary alterations was
not in many cases as great as was desirable. Houses which have once been " approved and
registered" under the Common Lodging-houses Acts are practically required to be judged in the
future by the requirements which were deemed to be necessary at the time of approval and
registration, often many years ago, when the standard of accommodation for the London poor
was much lower than at the present time. Particularly must be noted the insufficiency of cubic
space in many of such houses, this insufficiency in some cases being such that were the houses
ordinary dwellings in London the keepers would be liable to prosecution for overcrowding. While
it is obvious that the action of a local authority must be governed by consideration of the fact
that the letting of common lodging-houses is a trade from which the keeper properly expects a
reasonable profit, it is equally evident the existing law gives too much opportunity for the continuance
of old conditions. If common lodging-houses were subject, as in Scotland, to annual
to effect very necessary improvements in conditions which are now practically permanent. Such
licence, it would be possible by degrees, and without any undue interference with existing rights,
system of annual licensing would moreover enable control to be exercised in respect of houses
where the conduct of the house is a reasonable cause of complaint to the neighbourhood in which
it is situated. It is, however, proper to state that the condition of common lodging-houses,