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235
Housing of the Working Classes—Accounts.
Housing Statistics.—Memorandum, by the Housing Manager (Mr. S. G. Burgess).
The new buildings completed and opened between 1st April, 1912, and 31st March, 1913, comprise
239 cottages, providing accommodation for 1,503 persons. Five sheds werealso providedand 1 tenement was
converted for use as bathrooms. Up to 31st March, 1913, a total of 6,420 tenements in block dwellings,
and 3,090 cottages, or a total of 9,510 lettings, containing 27,051 rooms ; and 1,856 cubicles in lodging
houses, affording accommodation altogether for 55,571 persons, had been provided and opened by
the Council. The gross rent receivable for the year 1911-12 was £215,294 0s. 0d., and for the year
1912-13, £218,925 17s. 10d., being an increase of £3,631, 17s. l0d.
Accommodation.
The financial result of the year's working of all dwellings in occupation, after providing for
interest and sinking fund charges on the capital expended, is a surplus of £9,937 4s. 4d., which, after
adding interest on cash balances (£719 10s. 7d.) gives a total net surplus of £10,656 14s. lid., or 4 83
per cent, of £220,498 15s. 2d., the gross rent receivable for the year. The interest and sinking fund
charges amount to 51 '26 per cent, of the gross rental. The sinking fund, which will redeem the capital
expended on land and buildings within a period of 60 years, has been increased during the year by
£24,018 lis. 0d., and the total sum now set aside in this fund in respect of dwellings in occupation
amounts to £216,294 lis. l0d. The expenditure for the management of the estates, including repairs,
rates and taxes, water, lighting, etc., amounts to 38"18 per cent, of the gross rental. During the year
the sum of £22,237 has been transferred to the repairs and renewals account, the unspent accumulations
on which, with the interest earned during the year (£1,874 Is. Id.), now amount to £63,009 5s. 6d. The
total addition to the fund was 10 90 of the gross rental.
Financial
results.
The loss of rent by empties (including the amounts lost at the opening of the new buildings—
239 lettings) is equivalent to 5-20 per cent, of the gross rental.
During the year 2,482 tenants left the dwellings. This is equivalent to 26'09 per cent, of the
total number of tenements, as compared with 32 63 per cent, in 1911-12. Of the 2,482 tenants who
removed, 257 tenants, or 10-35 per "cent, of the number, were given notice to quit by the Council,
either for non-payment of rent, disorderly conduct, or some other cause. The remaining 2,225
tenants, or 89'65 per cent., gave notice to the Council and left to suit their own convenience.
A total of 6,564 applications for accommodation on the Council's estates (excluding lodging
houses) were dealt with, and 760 transfers were effected. These transfers are sometimes to a different
estate, owing to the tenant having changed his place of work, and sometimes to a larger or smaller
tenement on the same estate, owing to the increase or decrease of the tenant's family. Of the 6,564
applications received, 2,975 or 45-32 per cent, were suited with accommodation. ,
A number of tenants who removed from the dwellings were in arrear with their rent, and left
without paying the amounts owing. Every effort has been made to recover these arrears on vacation,
but the amount of £183 16s. 3d. or -08 per cent. (l'7d. per £100) of the gross rental has been included
.n the accounts as irrecoverable.
l
Empties,
transfers,
rents
irrecoverable,
etc.
During the year the Council did not rehouse any persons who had been displaced by the
Council's improvement and clearance schemes. The total number of displaced persons rehoused to
31st March, 1913, is 1,756.
Rehousing.
The usual annual enumeration of tenants of the Council's dwellings was taken in March, 1913
and showed that the rooms (excluding lodging houses), available for letting, were actually occupied
by 34,023 persons, or an average of 1-26 persons per room. The birth rate for the year amounted to
25-40 per 1,000, and the death rate (exclusive of the three men's lodging houses) to 10-05 per 1,000.
As in previous years, a careful examination of the enumeration returns was made with a view to the
detection of cases of overcrowding. The maximum number of persons to be allowed in any tenement
in the Council's dwellings has been fixed by the Committee at two persons per room, children up to the
age of 5 being for this purpose reckoned as nil, and children between the ages of 5 and 10 as half an
adult. This year the number of cases not complying with this standard was 32 or -34 per cent, of the
total number of tenements. The overcrowding is usually found to be due to one or more children in the
tenement having reached the age of 5 or 10 years, and so being counted in accordance with the Council's
scale. This overcrowding is usually remedied by the removal of the family to a larger tenement in the
dwellings.
Census of
tenants.
A sum of £22,951 18s. lid. (10 40 per cent, of the gross rental) has been spent in repairs to the
buildings during the year. These repairs include external painting at 42 blocks of tenements and
362 cottages, whitening the soffits and cleaning or painting walls of 267 staircases, comb graining and
varnishing the woodwork of 1,414 tenements and 283 cottages, repainting 56 tenements, and cleansing
repairs at 7,035 tenements. The whole of these repairs have been executed by direct labour employed
in the housing department.
Repairs.
During the year 24 small fires occurred in the dwellings. The damage was in every case slight, Fires,
and the total cost of reinstatement, amounting to £31 1s. 6d., was covered by the Council's insurance
fund.