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the total number with which the Council will eventually have had to deal will be 330.
The increase is due largely to owners and tenants in areas which the Council has
determined to be areas in need o f redevelopment, knowing that the houses are destined
for demolition, ceasing to carry out repairs with the result that the properties,
already old, have rapidly deteriorated and eventually become unfit.
The Council continues to find that generally the most satisfactory way of dealing
with these properties is the issue of Certificates of Unfitness under the Housing
(Financial Provisions) Act, 1958, after the houses have passed into the Council's
ownership. The District Valuer, who negotiates the purchase of properties in these
areas on behalf of the Council, is supplied with a report on the condition of each
property, whether unfit or not, to assist him in the assessing of its value. The
reports are prepared by the Public Health Inspectorate.
It is anticipated that this revised slum clearance programme will be completed
by August 1962. By then, other properties in these areas for redevelopment will no
doubt have reached the stage of disrepair which makes them unfit, and the work of
dealing with them will continue. It is also reasonable to assume that the minimum
standard of housing fitness will improve as the standard of living rises, and that
housing work will continue with us for several years to come.
One aspect of housing in which little progress was made was in dealing with
houses let in multi-occupation. The absence of proper statutory standards for
amenities and the fact that action under the Housing Act, 1957, might lead to eviction
of families which the Council could not at present rehouse, makes progress in
this field of housing work difficult.
The close of the year saw most of the work of this Department in the New Brent
Street Area of Redevelopment completed. Of the 114 properties in this area 71 were
found to be unfit for human habitation and have been dealt with either by making of
Closing or Demolition Orders under the Housing Act, 1957, or the issue of Certificates
of Unfitness under the Housing (Financial Provisions) Act, 1958.
It is rewarding to see the demolition of these terraced blocks of houses with
their rising dampness, rotten floors, dark steep staircases and lacking in those
necessary amenities - hot water, baths, lavatory basins, internal water closets and
ventilated larders - and the tenants rehoused in the modern blocks of flats with
their splendid amenities. The fact that the redevelopment site will also provide
accommodation for families from unfit properties in other parts of the Borough is
also gratifying.
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