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This comprised one complete road of thirty-eight terraced houses, identical in type, and
constructed so as to lend themselves readily to improvement to the full standard.
Situated immediately adjacent to an area scheduled for redevelopment it was visualised
that integration of the two areas would ultimately achieve overall environmental improvement.
By the end of 1968 all the tenanted houses in the area had been improved
to provide full standard amenities, and apart from two houses occupied by old age
pensioners the owner-occupied houses had been similarly dealth with or arrangements
were in hand for the carrying out of the work.
During the year a second Improvement Area comprising 91 tenanted houses at Brent
Terrace, Cricklewood, was designated. Originally constructed to provide housing
accommodation for railway employees, the properties had passed into private ownership.
Agreement was reached with the owners at the outset to proceed with a phased
programme of improvement in order to achieve completion of the work within two years;
all the houses to be retained for renting. By the end of the year the work was proceeding
and a pattern of improvement established. .
Consideration was also given to a third area of 136 houses in Campion, Needham,
Johnston and Midland Terraces, Cricklewood, which like Brent Terrace had been a
British Rail estate and now acquired by a private property Company. Before designation
as an Improvement Area could be made the owners gave an undertaking to the Council
to carry out complete modernisation of properties as they became vacant and to
improve to the full standard the remaining houses including those where the sitting
tenants were desirous of purchasing for owner/occupation. This undertaking was
accepted on the understanding that every effort would be made to complete the work
in two years, and by the end of the year this was well in hand.
Indications are that within the next twelve months the compulsory provisions of the
Housing Act 1964 relating to the area improvement will be repealed by new legislation,
and it will be necessary to revert to "improvement by persuasion", a policy first
suggested by the Minister in 1962. Whilst it is accepted that certain of the procedures
laid down in the present Act are cumbersome and time consuming, it is felt that with
an element of dedication on the part of the officers concerned the improvement area
provisions in the Housing Act 1964 could have provided a very useful weapon in the
war against sub-standard housing conditions in many districts.
Section 19 of the Housing Act 1964 enables the tenant of a house which is
outside an Improvement Area to make representation to the Council to take action to
secure the provision of satisfactory amenities at his house. The initial approach
must come from the tenant and it is discouraging to find how little the provision is
used. No representations were received during the year. The works necessary in
respect of two cases outstanding from the previous year were satis.factorily completed.
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