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HOUSING
Housing Act 1957 — Unfit Premises
Further progress was made to deal with unfit property and during the year 2 Demolition
Orders, 13 Closing Orders and 2 Closing Orders of parts of buildings, were made. In addition
3 undertakings were given by owners not to relet property and these were accepted by the
Council in lieu of making Closing Orders.
There were no Clearance Areas declared during the year although certain areas of the
Borough were surveyed with a view to ascertaining whether the properties fell within the scope
of Part III of the Housing Act 1957 (Clearance Areas).
Housing Acts 1964-1969 — Improvements
As mentioned in the Annual Report for 1970 information is passed to this department
from the Town Clerk of all applications made to the Council for Improvement Grants. This
enables the department to comment in cases where a house is already subject to a Closing Order,
where any action may be contemplated by way of Slum Clearance, or where any other material
information is known.
Nine representations were made by tenants under Section 19 of the Housing Act 1964
with a view to providing standard amenities within their dwellings. (The standard amenities are
a bath in a bathroom, a hand basin, a sink, hot and cold water supply to those fittings and
an internal watercloset where this is reasonably practicable). In four cases the Council served
Immediate Improvement Notices on the owners to provide those amenities. It is anticipated
that Immediate Improvement Notices will be served in the forthcoming year on the remaining
five properties. Seven properties were provided with the standard amenities as a result of
Immediate Improvement Notices being served prior to this year.
The Department of the Environment made approaches to this authority and to the other
London Boroughs with a view to launching a campaign of house improvement in April 1972.
As a result a number of meetings were held between Officers of this Council and those of
the Department of the Environment, London Electricity Board, South-Eastern Gas Board, and
other interested parties with a view to preparing and launching the campaign.
The Council have not yet declared any General Improvement Areas although a few meetings
were held at Officer level to consider the possibility of so doing. The making of a General
Improvement Area, however, cannot be taken lightly as the amount of work involved is
considerable not only in the Health Department but in other departments of the Council.
In the right area there is an opportunity to give impetus to house improvement by the
making of General Improvement Areas, especially where this can be linked with environmental
improvements and the powers contained in the Housing Act 1969 are worthy of detailed study
as part of a general programme of dealing with unsatisfactory dwelling houses.
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