London's Pulse: Medical Officer of Health reports 1848-1972

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London County Council 1934

[Report of the Medical Officer of Health for London County Council]

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34
Improvement.
Number of areas represented under section 7 of the Housing Act,
1930 1
Number of houses included therein 126
The total number of improvement areas declared under the Housing Act, 1930,
is 3 containing 595 houses.
In connection with the work of representation several difficulties present themselves
to the medical officer who is charged with the duty of deciding whether a
particular house should be condemned. The medical officer interpreting section 1
cannot take into consideration any question of hardship or cost to the owner. There
is in the 1930 Act a workable definition of unfitness as regards sanitary defects,
but many difficulties arise on the question of the state of disrepair. It is not unusual
to find one or more rooms used as a shop, workshop, or store in premises originally
constructed as a dwelling house, or again a house may be closed or in various
stages of ruin. If the portion of the house used as a dwelling is sufficiently bad, or
if the house or the converted part could be occupied again as a dwelling, the premises
as a whole are included in the representation map. It sometimes happens, however,
that when an order is confirmed, premises of this nature are found to be excluded
by the Ministry of Health from the clearance area.
It has been stated by the Minister of Health that in revising the proposed orders
of local authorities the number of houses excluded by him amounted to about
12 per cent. This is the figure for the whole country. During the past year in
respect of orders made by the Council the corresponding figure is rather less than
1½. per cent., and may be taken as indicative of the care with which the representations
are made.
A reference was made in last year's report to the need for collaboration between
the metropolitan borough councils and the County Council, who are all equally
authorities in London under the 1930 Act, except in as so far as the boroughs are
required under Section 16 to notify to the Council their proposals in respect of any
clearance area and ascertain whether the Council itself intends to deal therewith.
It is clear therefore that, unless the borough authority and the Council have reached
some measure of agreement as to what each shall regard as its contribution to the
task, much energy may be dissipated in the preparation of dual schemes.
A natural division of labour which suggests itself is that the Council, with its
greater resources and broader organisation, should assume responsibility for the more
costly and more complicated schemes and should undertake the clearance and redevelopment
of the larger groups of slum areas which rightly fall as a burden on the
whole of London's ratepayers. Accordingly a programme of three years' work was
drawn up and approved. It embraces those larger areas which seem to offer a
possibility of rehousing schemes, and the work is divided into sections to be undertaken
approximately each half year. It was understood, however, that it might be
found difficult or even undesirable to deal with the programmed areas strictly in
chronological order, and that rearrangement to meet circumstances as they arise
might be necessary. The object was to set a pace which could be followed and to
accomplish the task within a time which could be envisaged.
Apart from the larger areas in the programme, attention has to be directed also
to a mass of insanitary housing in little cul.de.sac courts, alleys, and mews which
could be made the subject of clearance orders but which, whilst increasing the rehousing
requirements are, on account of their size and relative positions, incapable
of contributing to the area available for rehousing sites.
The first step towards co.operation between the boroughs and the Council was
to agree upon the identity and location of the well.defined and scheduled small areas.
This was done between the medical officers, and conferences were then held between
representatives of the borough councils and the Chairman of the Council's Housing
and Public Health Committee. The lists of areas prepared for these conferences
were arranged in groups:—(a) larger areas on the Council's programme, (b) areas
which had been notified as among borough council proposals, and (c) "unadopted"
areas. The object of the discussions was to provide the borough representatives