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It may be said that Acton's development has taken place
after the introduction of bye-laws regulating new streets and buildings.
At the present time there remain very few houses which
were erected before the adoption of building bve-laws. Although
it is not claimed that our problem is entirely an economic and social
one, gross sanitary defects are not our most prominent difficulty.
Even where our sanitary difficulties are greatest, the streets are
wide ones, with fairly large spaces at the rear of the houses.
Our chief difficulty is the scarcity of houses at a rent which
is within the reach of the poorer inhabitants. Although transport
facilities have been revolutionised in recent years, we still find that
the people desire to live near their place of employment. The
development of the northern part of the district along factory lines
has created a demand for housing accommodation far in excess
of the supply. This state of affairs has enabled those unscrupulous
landlords—and I am sorry to say they form a very large proportion—
to exploit this want to their own profit. I know that there are
exceptions, but in the majority of instances it is a case of getting
the highest rent possible. Usually when a landlord manages his
own property, his conduct to his tenants is more human. There
are certain house agents whose conduct is revolting. The conception
of stewardship is entirely lacking. Their sole idea is that
land and houses belong to the owner and that the property is a
possession and not a responsibility. Unless the owner is forced
by a sanitary notice he will carry out no repairs, and the repairs
executed will be strictly limited by his legal requirements. The
tenants frequently are afraid to complain to the health department
because they are afraid of the consequences. We know of a recent
instance where the agent served a notice to quit because the tenant
had been down to the health department to make a complaint.
In our sanitary notices we frequently ask for the execution
of certain work which possibly cannot be strictly and legally enforced,
because we think that certain amenities should be enjoyed by all,
though not specifically prescribed in the Public Health Acts. There
are certain agents who invariably refuse to carry out the extralegal
work. They execute the minimum amount of work and think