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40
It cannot be expected that the average tenant knows how to
obtain the fullest benefits from his altered conditions. Together
with Housing must go Education. The tenant, moreover, discovers
something else, that he has to pay a higher rent than he
has previously paid, and is often hard put to it to find this extra
rent.
There are two ways of getting rent from tenants ; one is to
threaten eviction unless the rent be paid, and the other is to educate
the tenant and shew him how to budget his income in such a way
that he will be able to pay his rent without undue difficulty. I
submit that the second method is the method of choice.
Many Authorities have already realised this and have appointed
Housing Managers to visit the homes and educate the parents
in Housecraft. In some cases these Managers are ladies and they
are given the duty not only of advising the tenants on the management
of the house but in addition the collecting of rents.
Whether it is advisable for women to be rent collectors or
not I do not know, nor am I sure that the collection of rents and
education in Housecraft can march satisfactorily hand-in-hand,
but I am certainly convinced that where families are failing to
pay their rents or paying irregularly, or where the home is getting
into an unsatisfactory condition, that a visit from an individual
trained in Estate Management might well precede action to recover
unpaid rent.
I think much might be done to encourage communal life
and pride by the tenants of our Council Estates. One would
like to see the tenants organise themselves into Committees for
the purpose of improving the Estate, by seeing that gardens are
kept in order, by arranging football and cricket teams, facilities
for lectures and methods of improving the Estate and tenants
generally. If this spirit were properly fostered I see no reason
why our Estates should not each become small Garden Cities.
INSPECTION AND SUPERVISION OF FOOD.
Milk.
Dr. Tate, the Medical Officer of Health for the County, has
supplied me with the following report on the inspection of cows in
the Enfield district during the year under the Milk and Dairies
(Consolidation )Act, 1915, and the Tuberculosis Order, 1925