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39
It is probable that the trouble arises in this way ; a tenant
having been granted a Council house departs from his two rooms
to occupy a house containing five rooms. Accordingly he sets
out to purchase additional furniture for his new home. He usually
proceeds to a secondhand store and buys secondhand beds and
bedding. In many cases he is buying a hot-bed of bugs and bringing
them along to his new house.
Bugs can and do travel from house to house, and it is possible
for one house to infest a whole row if the houses are adjacent.
How is this problem to be tackled ?
In the first place houses must be erected of such a nature
that they do not tend to become infested with bugs, and in the
second place that should they become infested they can easily
be disinfested.
This is a matter of construction ; wall-papers, wooden picture
rails, and wood panelling on ceilings should be forbidden. Wooden
skirting boards should be replaced with cement.
Prior to going into a new Council house some Authorities
have adopted a complete scheme of disinfestation of each family,
and housing in temporary accommodation whilst this disinfestation
is being carried out. I think these are measures which the Council
will do well to consider.
There is a further suggestion which I think worthy of consideration
.
Council tenants tend to buy too much furniture and the
wrong type of furniture.
I would like to see new houses constructed in which the
furniture was built into the house and in many cases made of
metal. In the living room a metal flap table might well replace
the large wooden table at present so often seen, and could be let
down against the wall giving more room for the occupants.
Wardrobes, chests of drawers, dressing-tables could easily be
constructed with the houses and I should even like to see metal
beds erected in a similar manner. If this were done I believe
that our Council houses would be cleaner, less liable to infestation,
lighter, more roomy and generally healthier.
The granting of a Council house is one of the great events in
the life of the recipient. After years of living under deplorable
conditions in two rooms a family at last finds itself granted a
five-roomed house with a bathroom and a sink, and in addition,
a garden to itself.