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HOUSING
Provision of Housing Accommodation
During the year the number of purpose-built housing units provided by construction
was 274. One unit of housing accommodation only was acquired from a private owner,
the Council having discontinued its previous policy in this connection for financial
reasons. A total of 434 families had been rehoused by 31st December.
By December all the remaining persons in the West Hendon Housing Area, the
largest of the redevelopment areas included in the Council's programme, had been
allocated tenancies thereby permitting demolition to be completed. In all, 101
families were rehoused from Housing Areas during the year.
Pressure continued to remain high on the type of accommodation suitable for
elderly persons unable to climb stairs and, wherever necessary, the Borough
Housing Officer seeks my views on the Medical aspects of such cases.
Despite the progress in rehousing, the number of persons applying to the Council
for accommodation continued to increase, it being noteworthy that a high proportion
of these were young married couples unable to find private accommodation in the
Borough within their means. At the end of the year a total of 5581 applications were
registered.
I am indebted to the Borough Housing Officer for the above information on the
progress made by the Council during the year in providing housing.
Houses in Multi-occupation
The Housing Acts 1961 and 1964 provide power to deal with unsatisfactory
living accommodation in houses let in lodgings or occupied by more than one
family. In this connection in October 1965 the Council adopted comprehensive
standards in respect of facilities and amenities to be applied in such houses.
There are many houses in the Borough which are let in lodgings or occupied by
varying numbers of families; the former often of the bed-sitting room type which if
well maintained help to fulfill a housing need not otherwise satisfied. There are
some clearly defined and well established sectors, namely in parts of Cricklewood,
Childs Hill and Golders Green, where concentrations of multi-occupied houses are
found. There are also many such houses "concealed" throughout the Borough and it
is often in these properties that the most adverse conditions exist.
188 houses in multiple occupation were inspected in detail and 90 have been
equipped and repaired so as to make them suitable for the number of individuals or
families in occupation. In one house in East Finchley which could not physically be
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