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importance of good housing in relation to good health cannot be
overstressed, and I would go so far as to say that if I had the magical
power of producing houses out of a hat I could do more for the health
of the people of Barking than through any of the existing health
services.
Your points scheme for the allocation of houses does, however,
give me power to recommend priority for families where one of the
members suffers from pulmonary tuberculosis. A lesser degree of
priority can be given in respect of patients with other disabilities, but
I have used the latter power extremely cautiously because if widely
used affords relatively less priority to those most needing it. I have
also been conscious that the maximum number of points I can recommend
(five) is small in comparison with the total of about 60 points
(which can be amassed by a family on such grounds as length of residence
in the Borough, service in H.M. Forces and length of time on the
waiting list, quite apart from points given by virtue of need for rehousing.
The year was notable in that you commenced work on the New
Thames View Housing Estate which will ultimately provide accommodation
for some 7,000 to 8,000 people. Whilst I was not serving
the Council at the time the scheme was conceived I believe that this
was not don. without considerable criticism from without and some
misgiving fro within. I feel the Council is to be congratulated on
its courage in embarking on this project, for despite the additional
expense and higher rents resulting from the erection of houses on this
difficult site the tenants will be relieved of the strain and expense of
additional tra which would have been imposed upon them had they
been rehoused outside the Borough. It is also comforting to feel that
you have not contributed to the apparently relentless engulfment of
the countryside by the town.
Towards t the end of the year the Public Health Committee invited
the Housing Committee to consider a proposal for making this new
estate a smokeless one. The relative proximity of the Barking Power
Station suggested the possibility of establishing a district heating
scheme similar to that operating in Pimlico, but although the matter
was still under consideration at the end of the year your technical
officers had warned you that the particular plant at the Barking Power
station might not lend itself to the operation of such a scheme. You
accordingly made preliminary enquiries as to the possibility of insisting
on the use of smokeless fuels by tenants on the new estate.
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