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28
GENERAL OBSERVATIONS.
The Council now possesses 1 ,746 houses, a figure which has
increased by 6 in the last three years.
Land has been acquired for the erection of further houses, but
so far has not been utilised for this purpose.
Housing Survey—Housing Act, 1935.
According to the provisions of this Act, it was necessary that
a survey be made of the District in order to ascertain which houses
situated therein were overcrowded.
It was essential that a visit be paid to every house which might
be used for housing members of the working-classes. In view of
the fact that many houses in the better class areas of the District
are occupied by more than one family, or parts of such houses let
off to members of the working-classes, it was considered essential
that a complete survey of the whole District should be made.
As a result thereof, 21,060 dwellings were inspected.
These dwellings housed 21,500 families comprising 79,201
persons. This figure included the staff of such Institutions as
there are in the District, but not the inmates thereof.
The inspection was carried out in two phases.
The first or preliminary survey showed the number of houses
where overcrowding might be present and where measurement of
all rooms in the house would be required in order to discover
whether it was overcrowded according to the standard set by the
Act.
The number of dwellings found to require such special survey
was 1,096, or 5.2 per cent. of the dwellings inspected. These
1,096 houses were then re-inspected and the rooms in each of these
dwellings measured.
From this inspection the following facts emerged:—
(1) 341 families were living in overcrowded dwellings;
(2) 1.619 per cent. of the dwellings in Enfield were overcrowded
: and
(3) 1.586 per cent. of the families were living in overcrowded
conditions.