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which had not expired, and when the Council, on 30th March, 1926, decided to take a
lease of the site on the terms indicated, it also approved a capital estimate of £4,000 for
obtaining possession of the whole site and for carrying out certain works (including
the provision of boundary walls, etc., where necessary) consequent on severance.
The site, which will be known as Shore estate, will be developed by the
provision of 184 tenements with accommodation for 1,016 persons. On 11th May,
1926, the Council approved a capital estimate of £3,500 in respect of preliminary
expenses incidental to the erection of the dwellings and at the end of the year
working drawings for blocks Nos. l and 2 were well in hand.
The Council having decided to adapt the upper floors of the disused fire-station
at Shepherd's Bush for rehousing purposes, to be known as Bush Green House, accepted
during the year a tender, amounting to £678, for the work of conversion. The cleaning
and decorating work was carried out by direct labour at an estimated cost of £120.
The ground floor and basement have been let for commercial use.
Bush-green
House.
The Council's dwellings are built primarily to provide residential accommodation
for persons of the working classes and the Council is satisfied that the dwellings are
occupied by the class of persons for whom the accommodation is intended. The
most numerous categories are clerks, labourers, transport workers and printers,
while mechanics in various trades form a large proportion of the total. It has
been found expedient, however, to allocate a few houses and tenements to medical
practitioners, midwives, nurses and others, whose presence is essential to the wellbeing
of the tenants on the estates. Some of these have been given preference
on this account over the ordinary applicants for tenancies.
Occupation
of tenants—
Rents.
As the Council's post-war housing operations are subsidised out of public funds,
persons to whom special facilities have been afforded to exercise a calling on the estate
have been charged rents exceeding those ordinarily charged to the other tenants.
The rents of premises let for purposes of a medical practice have, for example, been
fixed at what may be described as a remunerative rent, that is to say, at an amount
sufficient to cover all outgoings including debt charges, while in certain other cases
preferentially accommodated rents have been charged on a lower scale but still exceeding
the rents fixed by the Council for ordinary tenants.
It is a condition of the ordinary tenancy of the Council's dwellings that the
premises shall not be used for trade purposes. Some of the tenants, however,
have utilised their address for receiving orders in connection with their business,
and in a few cases it has been found that, in addition to the essential services mentioned
above, some minor profession, e.g., music teacher, or work of a light character, such
as dressmaking, is carried on. The question which was reviewed by the Council during
the year, is one of some difficulty, it being necessary on the one hand to obviate hardship
to the person in poor circumstances and on the other to ensure that public funds shall
not be employed to subsidise profitable businesses or professions. In the circumstances,
the Council decided on 9th March, 1926, that tenants belonging to the better paid
professions, such as doctors, dentists, etc., should continue to pay a rent at least
equivalent to the remunerative rent; and that in all other cases in which public
indication given that any profession or occupation for profit was being carried on
at or from the dwelling or in which the tenant was preferentially accommodated for
the purpose of pursuing such profession or occupation, an addition of 10s. a month
should be made to the normal subsidised rent. The position will be reviewed at
the end of twelve months.
During 1926 the charges for cubicles at the Council's lodging-houses, Carrington
House and Parker-street House, were reduced by 1d. to l0d. and 11d. a night,
respectively, with corresponding reductions for special cubicles and weekly tickets.
Lodging
house?.
During the year the Council made grants not exceeding £100 in all out of the
interest on deposits paid by tenants on taking up tenancies, for distribution to prize
funds for the best kept gardens and window boxes on the Council's estates.
Prizes for
gardens and
window
boxes.