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24
with a number of children to obtain accommodation under present conditions;
whilst there is also a disinclination to move if the tenant thereby loses the protection
of the Rent Restriction Acts.
The cases of overcrowding dealt with by the metropolitan borough councils under
the Public Health Act by-laws are cases in which persons are living much in excess of
two to a room. The figures as to action taken to abate overcrowding indicate the
difficulties experienced under post-war conditions. While in pre-war years the
number of cases of overcrowding found and the number remedied were substantially
the same, in post-war years the number remedied was generally much lower than the
number of cases discovered. The Council has taken special steps to assist the
metropolitan borough councils in dealing with such cases by allocating to them
one-half of the new accommodation which it provides on its suburban estates. When
overcrowding has been relieved it is important that the accommodation rendered
vacant should not again be allowed to become overcrowded. The Council has suggested
to all the metropolitan borough councils more effective administrative action
in this direction, and it is understood that most of them are taking all possible steps
to prevent the re-overcrowding of dwellings from which the tenants have been
removed to municipal dwellings. On the whole the figures indicate that, at any rate
as regards overcrowding generally in London, there has been some improvement
since 1921; but whether this applies to all parts of the county and to the various
degrees of overcrowding it is not possible on the available information to form a
definite conclusion.
The closing and demolition of individual unfit houses (as distinct from the clearance
and reconstruction of unhealthy areas) in the County of London is a duty of the
metropolitan borough councils. The information available shows that the number
of closing orders made by the metropolitan borough councils has fallen off very greatly
since pre-war years. In the five years, 1910-14, 1,096 such orders were made, and
in the five years 1923-27, only 194. It may safely be assumed that, as in the matter
of the abatement of overcrowding, the housing conditions prevailing since the war
have greatly hampered the sanitary authorities in dealing with such houses.
As regards the illegal occupation of underground rooms (namely, for sleeping
purposes under certain conditions), which is also a matter dealt with by the metropolitan
borough councils, the number of cases since the war in which such occupation
has, through the action of the metropolitan borough councils, been discontinued
shows a similar diminution as compared with pre-war years, and there is no doubt
that in this matter a strict enforcement of the law is very difficult, if not impossible,
under present conditions.
Consideration has been given during the year to the question whether, where
basement rooms in low-lying areas are liable' to floods do not comply with existing
statutory requirements, steps should be taken to secure that they are no longer used
as dwellings, and on the suggestions that authority should be sought from Parliament
to amend the law relating to underground rooms, including a proposal for obtaining
statutory authority to close the basement portion only of any house which is otherwise
quite habitable.
Without any question, certain underground dwellings in London are the most
insanitary houses to be found in the Metropolis. There are in fact no worse housing
conditions existing anywhere than those to be found in the underground rooms, in
respect of which it is proposed to acquire additional statutory powers to enable them
to be dealt with.
The most insanitary areas do not, and never have provided such intense
degrees of insanitariness as are to be found in the case of the underground rooms
under consideration. In the nature of the case, when an insanitary area becomes the
subject of an improvement scheme, numbers of houses have to be included, some in
order to make the scheme complete and others in attenuating degrees of insanitari-
Unfit houses
and underground
rooms.
Thames
Hoods—
underground
rooms.