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a surplus for the preceding year of £36,776. The interest and sinking fund charges
amounted to £115,942, or 32.93 per cent. of the gross rental. Other outgoings
amounted to £185,293, or 52.63 per cent. of the gross rental, including £83,073
(23.59 per cent. of the gross rental) for rates and taxes. The balance of the Acquisition
of Lands Fund, the difference between totals of debt charges on cash and stock
bases and the interest on cash balances have been taken into account in arriving
at these results.
As regards the 8,046 dwellings erected under the Assisted Schemes, and in
occupation during the year, the financial result, after providing for interest and
sinking fund charges, was a deficiency of £318,130. This deficiency will be included
in the amount recoverable from H.M. Government. The interest and sinking
fund charges amounted to £551,226, and the expenditure on other outgoings
accounted for (excluding rates and taxes) was £49,538. The amount paid in respect
of rates, taxes, etc., was £77,251.
Rent irrecoverable.
Some tenants left during the year without paying arrears of rent, but the amount
thus irrecoverable amounted only to £592, or about .09 per cent. of the total rent.
Of the amount irrecoverable £131 or .037 per cent. of the gross rental arose on NonAssisted
Schemes, while £461 or .16 per cent., of the gross rental arose on the Assisted
Schemes.
Empties.
The loss by empties during the year was £2,160, or .34 per cent. of the rent
as compared with 51 per cent. in 1922-23. This loss was, as usual, mainly due to
Carrington House not being fully occupied by lodgers, £1,932 of the total loss being
in respect of Carrington House. Excluding this the loss was only £228. Apart
from Carrington House these empties were caused almost entirely by dwellings
having to be cleaned and repaired in connection with change of tenancy.
Repairs.
The necessary repairs to the dwellings are carried out by direct employment
of labour. The amount so spent in 1913-4 was £23,934. In 1920-21, this expenditure
had risen to £68,572, this increase being due to the higher wages, to the heavy
rise in the prices of materials, and to the necessity of overtaking the arrears of
painting and other work suspended during the war. During 1923-24 the expenditure
on Non-Assisted Schemes amounted to £37,560, and to £15,825 on Assisted
Schemes. It will be seen that there was relatively a substantial decrease in the
expenditure under this head during the year, this being attributable partly to the
fall in wages and the cost of materials and partly to arrears of work, caused by the
war, having been overtaken in the preceding few years.