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The Health of Barking
At the end of the year there were 173 notices outstanding.
This result was achieved by some 13,000 inspections and re-inspections.
It has become evident that whilst it is now easier to get repairs carried out
when the defect is remediable at a cost less than £10, there is a gradual hardening
of resistance by owners to notices requiring heavy expenditure.
In Barking a substantial number of houses are controlled at an inclusive rent of
10s. per week, which inevitably becomes a limiting factor in view of the term
"reasonable cost" mentioned in Section 9 of the Housing Act, 1936. The issue of
notices requiring repairs of £50 in cost must give rise to the question as to when
the owner should be given an opportunity of stating his willingness or otherwise
to carry out repair works.
(B) HOUSING.
STATISTICS.
Your Chief Sanitary Inspector, who is Rehousing Officer for the Borough,
has supplied the statistics, to be found on pages 63-64, which show the detailed
position in the Borough at the end of the year.
POST-WAR HOUSING.
The housing problem is still with us and remains acute. It would be wrong
to use the term chronic because I believe that with the completion of the Council's
post-war building scheme substantial reduction in the large number of families
awaiting accommodation will be achieved.
During the year 205 new houses were erected and a further 39 rebuilds
completed by the Corporation. This, together with the building by the London
County Council and private owners of a total of 381 dwellings, represents the
maximum amount of building possible in the Borough with the present labour force.
The fact that the Council's future building programme consists entirely of flatdw
llings is an indication of the land scarcity in the Borough.
Whilst I have the usual objection to this type of dwelling for families, particularly
where there are small children, I recognise the necessity and also applaud
the care the Council is taking to secure that the flats now in course of erection
are designed and built to overcome, so far as practicable, the difficulties found in
living in flats.
CLEARANCE AREAS AND REHOUSING.
Unfortunately we still have 150 families living in houses condemned so long ago
as 938, and, together with a further 508 houses scheduled as unfit, the Council is
faced with a serious problem, but as a progressive housing authority with a proud
record in municipal building, I am confident this problem will be solved.
Rehousing—Medical Aspects. During the year I have been called upon continuously
to express an opinion upon medical certificates issued by my colleagues
practising in the Borough.
The maximum value of such a certificate, if accepted, is five points. Unfortunately,
many applicants for accommodation do not realise that the medical aspect
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