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generally accepted as a logical and realistic adjustment of an
important item of domestic expenditure. What is not quite so
clear is the extent to which landlords have taken advantage of
the right to increase the rent and tenants to see that repairs are
carried out. It will be the duty of Local Authority Officers to
observe whether the "repair and maintenance" objective is
achieved in due course and consider in the light of experience
whether greater use of the statutory powers contained in the
Housing and Public Health Acts is necessary.
Landlords cannot now plead "unreasonable expense"
when asked to carry out essential repairs to otherwise structurally
sound property."
Another measure with the same object is that of making
"Improvement Grants" for the provision of modern amenities, but
by December, 1956 only eleven applications of this type had been
approved by the Council. Schemes for a further five houses were
approved in 1957 and improvements to the value of £1,652 were
completed, 50% Grants being made in each case. Much more
use could be made of these provisions especially by owners of
rented property. To date all but 2 of the grants have been made
to owner/occupiers.
As a guide to the remedial work carried out by the Public
Health Inspectors during 1957, it should be mentioned that they
inspected 324 houses for this purpose, making 3,153 inspections.
Five were found unfit for habitation and 293 needed remedial
action. Of these 224 were made fit without formal notice being
required. In 39 cases notices had to be served and the work was
subsequently carried out, on 29 occasions by the Council in default
of the owners, mainly because the work was associated with the
public sewers.
Overcrowding as such has not received the concentrated
attention it did in 1935/36 and no houses were known to be overcrowded
at the end of 1957, during which year 3 cases were
relieved (involving 16 persons). This should not, however, be
taken to be a complete picture of the amount of overcrowding now
existing, and it should not be forgotten that the legal standard by
which 'overcrowding' is judged is extremely low.
PUBLIC HEALTH INSPECTIONS.
The duties of the Public Health Inspectors, whose housing
activities have just been referred to are very varied. In genera!
they inspect premises when they have reason to suspect that unhygienic
conditions exist or are liable to occur and as a result,
where necessary, help educate the persons concerned or require
them to remedy any existing defects, if needs be by legal action.
It is an anomaly that in this District they are the only Officers
in the Health Service serving solely the local District Council, with
the inevitable risk of it being thought that they constitute a self contained
unit. In practice they form a valuable part of a team and
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