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70
Houses infested with vermin. Number of premises cleansed.
Paddington 146 premises.
Kensington 137 „
Hammersmith 11 premises.
Fulham 116 rooms.
Chelsea 267 „
Westminster 119 premises.
St. Marylebone 43 rooms.
Hampstead 24 ,,
St. Pancras 191 „
Islington 135 premises.
Stoke Newington A considerable number.
Holborn 91 premises.
Finsbury 30 occupancies.
Shoreditch 181 rooms.
Bethnal Green 336 „
Stepney 1,399 „
Poplar 212 „
Southwark 1,053 „
Lambeth 4 ,,
Wandsworth 100 premises.
Camberwell 10 ,,
Deptford 11 rooms.
Lewisham 6 premises.
Woolwich 148 rooms.
Revenue Act, 1903.
Under section 11 of the Revenue Act, 1903, on the certificate of the medical officer of health
that the house is so constructed as to afford suitable accommodation for each of the families or
persons inhabiting it, with due provision for their sanitary requirements, there is exemption from or
reduction of inhabited house duty, as follows:—
(1) Where a house, so far as it is used as a dwelling house, is used for the sole purpose
of providing separate dwellings—
(a) The value of any dwelling in the house which is of an annual value below twenty
pounds shall be excluded from the annual value of the house for the purposes of inhabited
house duty; and
(b) The rate of inhabited house duty, in respect of any dwelling in the house of an
annual value of twenty pounds, but not exceeding forty pounds, shall be reduced to threepence
; and
(c) The rate of inhabited house duty, in respect of any dwelling in the house of
an annual value exceeding forty pounds, but not exceeding sixty pounds, shall be reduced
to sixpence.
For the purposes of these provisions medical officers of health were called upon to certify
numerous houses during the year, and in some instances the application was granted, in others it was
refused, while in others, again, it was only granted after alterations had been made to meet the conditions
necessary before certification. The Act appears to be instrumental in ensuring a higher standard
of dwelling accommodation than before. It is stated in two of the annual reports (Hampstead and
Hammersmith) that among the conditions which are insisted upon is the ventilation of gas stoves into
the external air.