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to enable the applicants to pay the rents, although these are less than remunerative
and entail heavy expenditure out of public funds. Under the tenancy agreements
sub-letting is not allowed, and during the year it was decided that tenants should
not be allowed to take lodgers.
New
dwellings
provided
during the
year.
Of the 5,134 additional dwellings provided during the year, 2,254 are situated
at Becontree, 1,773 at Bellingham, 542 on the White Hart Lane estate, 279 at
Roehampton, 214 on the Old Oak estate, which was completed during the
year, 60 on the Tabard-garden estate, Southwark, and 12 in Whiston House, Shoreditch,
the first block on the Collingwood estate, which is being erected to rehouse
persons displaced by the Brady-street clearance scheme. The tenements on the
Tabard-garden estate and at Whiston House are of the block dwelling type, while
all the others are of the cottage or cottage-flat type. On the Council's basis of
two persons a room the post-war dwellings occupied at the end of March, 1923,
provided accommodation for 55,855 persons.
Total accommodation
provided.
The pre-war dwellings comprise 6,543 tenements in block dwellings, 3,148
cottages and 294 cottage-flats, providing accommodation for 56,999 persons on the
basis of two persons a room. There are also the three lodging-houses (Bruce House,
Carrington House and Parker-street House), with cubicles providing accommodation
for 1,878 persons. The pre-war accommodation thus provided was for 58,877
persons. Adding to this figure the accommodation in the post-war dwellings, the
Council's dwellings and lodging-houses provided, at the end of March, 1923, accommodation,
calculated on the Council's basis of two persons a room, for 114,732 persons.
The actual population on that date was approximately 72,000 persons, which is
greater than the population of Bath or Lincoln, and almost as great as that of West
Bromwich or Barrow-in-Furness.
Rehousing
Owing to war conditions the Council did not during the years 1915-20 carry
out any displacements consequent upon street improvement, clearance and education
schemes. During the years 1920-22, however, the Council rehoused 298 persons,
all of whom had been displaced under the Tabard-street clearance scheme. During
1922-23 223 persons were rehoused, of whom the majority had been displaced by
the Tabard-street scheme, most of the remainder, about 30 or 40 in number, having
been displaced by the Brady-street, Bethnal Green, clearance scheme. The total
number rehoused up to 31st March, 1923, was 2,277.
Transfers.
During the year 609 tenants were transferred to other tenements on the Council's
estates. 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 owing
to an increase or decrease in the tenant's family. Whenever possible tenants living
in overcrowded conditions are transferred to larger dwellings, but this is specially
difficult at the present time owing to the shortage of accommodation and to the
unstable economic conditions.
Removals
and empties.
During the year 865 tenants left, of whom 49 were given notice to quit, either
for non-payment of rent, unsatisfactory conduct or some other cause. The remaining
816 gave notice and left to suit their own convenience ; it is difficult to ascertain
the causes of removal in most of these cases, but in 111 cases in which it has been
possible to obtain definite information on this point, 28 tenants moved because
they were leaving London, 23 because they found the rent too high, 25 because of
unemployment, illness or domestic reasons, 19 because their dwellings were too far
from their place of employment, and 16 because they had purchased a house elsewhere
or found accommodation at their place of employment.
Enumeration
of tenants
and overcrowding.
The annual enumeration of tenants was taken in March, 1923, and, as in previous
years, the enumeration returns were carefully examined in order to detect overcrowding.
For this purpose the maximum number of persons to be allowed in
any tenement in the dwellings has been fixed at two adults a room, children up to
the age of five not being taken into account for this purpose, and each child between
the age of five and ten being regarded as half an adult. This year the number of