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70 Annual Report of the London County Council, 1913.
of the three kinds of vermin. The work of the inspectors has unquestionably stimulated the action of
common lodging-house keepers, and it was thus only to be expected that considerable improvement
would be observed when the records for lice and bugs came to be examined ; the work of exterminating
these two kinds of vermin is comparatively simple, in view of the possibility of destroying them by
cleansing sheets, bedsteads, walls and floors. In the case of fleas no corresponding improvement is
recorded and this, doubtless, is largely due to the greater difficulties encountered in dealing with these
pests. It may be, moreover, that flea prevalence is to a large degree a question of temperature,
rainfall, etc. The efforts of public health authorities working with the object of diminishing the
prevalence of vermin are being persisted in, and it is possible that this work may have even more
far-reaching effect than is now generally appreciated.
Water supply to tenement homes.
Sanitary authorities have made considerable use of the powers provided by section 78 of the
London County Council (General Powers) Act, 1907, for requiring the provision of a water supply to
the upper floors of tenement houses.

Revenue
Act, 1903
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:—
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.
(a) Number of notices served. In the majority of cases the work was completed daring the year.