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embodied in an agreement under section 14 of the Housing (Financial Provisions)
Act, 1924, whereby the borough council agrees to pay a sum of £4 10s. a house per
annum for at least 40 years in consideration for the right to nominate tenants for
the houses. No houses are specially earmarked as being provided for the borough
council, but houses will continue to be let, as available, to the borough council's
nominees so as to maintain the quota of 100 houses until the cessation of the annual
payment under the agreement.
During the year the question of raising the rents for accommodation at Downham
was considered. The houses are subject to the financial provisions of the
Housing Act, 1924, which, while aiming at securing rents in each locality equivalent
to the rents prevailing there for working-class houses built before the war, contemplates
that such rents shall be charged as will be remunerative after allowance is
made for the combined subsidies from the State and the local authority of £13 10s.
a year under the Act. To secure this result it was found necessary to increase all
the rents fixed in 1924 by 1s. a week for new tenancies. The weekly net rents of
typical houses and flats as thus revised are as follows:—Two-roomed flats, 10s.;
three-roomed houses, 11s. 6d.; four-roomed (non-parlour) houses, 12s. 6d.; fourroomed
(parlour) houses, 13s. 6d.; five-roomed houses, 14s. 6d.
Arrangements were made during the year for the collection of the rates on the
houses with the weekly rents, subject to an allowance or commission from the
rating authority to the Council for the services rendered.
During 1925, the Council sold two sites, one slightly more than an acre in extent,
for £1,000 to the Church of England authorities for the erection of a church, and the
other to the Bromley Town Council for £2,150 for the erection of an elementary
school. Two sites in Bromley-road were let on lease for 99 years for the erection
of shops with living accommodation over. Two small portions of land were sold
for £70 to the owner of an adjoining estate.
The lay-out of the estate provides for the construction of a main (tramway)
road across the estate from Bromley-road to Grove-park station. This will be
wider than that which would normally be required for the development of the
housing estate, and the Council on 13th October, 1925, decided that the additional
cost of the road over and above that involved by the normal estate development
road should (apart from the charges to the tramways account in respect of the construction
of the tramways and the paving of the tramways area) be regarded as
expenditure in respect of a street improvemeut.
Baring-road, on the eastern boundary of the estate, is to be widened to 50 feet,
and the houses to be erected along the frontage to that thoroughfare will be set
back to such an extent as to permit of the widening not only to 50 feet, but also to
60 feet if considered necessary in future.
The lay-out of the estate provides for certain subsidiary roads of a width of
30 feet with 16 feet carriageways, which is less than the width required by the local
by-laws. The Bromley Town Council has approved the construction of the roads
as proposed, subject to an undertaking by the Council that if at any time, in the
opinion of the Minister of Transport, it becomes necessary to widen these roads,
the necessary land shall be surrendered free of cost to the Town Council.
East: Hill
estate.
The East Hill estate, Wandsworth (8 acres), was purchased in 1924 at a cost
of £19,000. The dwellings to be erected on the site, which will contain about 535
tenements, will afford accommodation for over 3,200 persons, and are intended
primarily for rehousing purposes in connection with the clearance of unhealthy areas.
On 27th January, 1925, the Council accepted the tender of J. E. Billings and Co.,
Limited, amounting to £71,997, for the construction of the superstructures of the
first five blocks on the estate, consisting of 160 tenements with accommodation
for 956 persons. On 14th July, 1925, the Council accepted the tender of HeathPritchard,
Limited, amounting to £1,656 3s., for wiring and fitting the first five