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property owners to the repair of rented property is encouraged, or
made economically possible in the near future, further deterioration
will result and clearance made necessary. This latter problem
has been the subject of comment in previous years and it is
becoming apparent that the rent increase provisions of the 1954
Act are proving a failure. Since the Act came into force in
August, 1954, only 25 Certificates of Disrepair have been issued
by the Council, of which 18 have been revoked on completion of
the necessary repairs.
It is evident that owners of property with statutory deductions
of the order of £6 or £7 are not prepared to risk the
possibility of having to carry out repairs costing possibly £100 or
more in order to obtain a gross increase of rent of £12 or £14 per
annum.
It should be recalled also that to qualify for the repairs
increase the house must be in "good repair" as respects both
structure and decoration and not merely fit for human habitation.
Nevertheless, many of these houses if repaired or improved will
provide good housing accommodation for many years.
To say as did the White Paper entitled "Houses — The
Next Step" that if a house cannot be made fit at reasonable expense
it becomes a candidate for demolition and replacement,
over-simplifies, in my opinion, a very complex problem."
Another measure which aimed at preserving the older type
house was the making of "Improvement Grants" towards the
provision of modern amenities, but this also has not been very
successful in practice. The Council, in 1954, agreed to operate
these provisions of the Housing Act in respect of sub-standard
properties, but by the end of 1955 only 6 applications for Grant
had been approved, and only two of them related to rented
properties.
However, in spite of the difficulties that surround housing
work in these post-war days of high costs, a measure of success
was achieved in the repair of insanitary houses, by persuasion
coupled with the application of statutory provisions when the
occasion demanded, as will be evident from the preceding statistics.
WATER SUPPLY.
The water supply of the District was, as in previous years,
provided by the Sutton District Water Company and the East
Surrey Water Company, with a private supply supplementing, as
necessary, at Cane Hill Hospital.
Routine samples of the treated water in public supply were
submitted quarterly for bacteriological and chemical examination.
In addition, seven further samples were obtained for various
reasons, making 23 samples in all.
In addition, both the Water Companies and the Local
Authorities sharing these public supplies provided the Department
with copies of the reports on the samples taken by them.
No complaints were received during the year with regard to
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