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The administration of The Rent Act, 1957, has provided
further work in investigating applications for Certificates of Disrepair
and advising landlords and tenants on the very complicated
procedure involved. Fourteen such applications were received and
in all cases with, or without modification, decisions to issue Certificates
were made. In only one case was it necessary to issue a
Certificate of Disrepair while in the remaining cases the landlords
gave undertakings to carry out the necessary repair work.
During the year ten houses were demolished as part of the
Council's Clearance Programme, and the site of six of these houses
in Edward Road is being utilised by the Council for the erection
of a block of eight fiats. The Purley Car Park is to be extended on
the site of the remaining four houses.
A demolition order was made in respect of a temporary
structure used for human habitation on Farthing Downs and an
undertaking not to relet obtained in respect of a further building
on the same site.
It is in the field of house modernisation or improvement,
however, that disappointment has to be registered. For some years
the Council has been prepared in approved cases to make Improvement
Grants under the provisions of The Housing Acts in respect
of works for the purpose of improving sub-standard properties,
and although many enquiries have been made and encouragement
given as to the availability of grants for this kind of work, only
three houses, in fact, were improved during the year at a total
cost of £1,480.
Two of these were agricultural tied cottages and the third
an owner occupied house.
In all cases 50% grants were made and a high standard of
improvement was achieved with extensive repairs being carried
out concurrently with the improvement works.
The lack of response from landlords to this opportunity to
bring otherwise structurally sound cottage type property up to a
more modern standard is not a good augury for the future of
rented properties of this kind.
This trend has not gone unnoticed by the Ministry concerned
and at the time of writing this report a further measure entitled
"House Purchase and Housing Act, 1959" has just come into force
with the object inter alia of simplifying the procedure and making
less onerous the conditions and consequential obligations of accepting
an Improvement Grant.
A new "Standard Grant" in addition to the existing "Discretionary
Grant" is now available for providing certain "standard
amenities" in older houses, i.e. a fixed bath or shower in a bathroom,
a wash-hand basin, a hot water supply, a water closet in or
contiguous to the dwelling, and satisfactory facilities for storing
food.
Subject to certain reasonable requirements an owner or leaseholder
can obtain as of right, a "Standard Grant" of half the cost
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