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HOUSING
I am indebted to the Borough Housing Officer for the following observations
on the Council's building and development progress during the year and on the
housing situation generally-
"Council building and development in 1961 centred around the completion of the
second and the commencement of the third phase of the New Brent Street Redevelopment
Scheme. During the year a further 53 flats for families and 43 bed-sitting rooms
for single persons were occupied at Lower Posters and Cheshir House, New Brent Street.
The flats continue the trend of recent years in being multi-storey dwellings
incorporating features of modern design. The bed-sitting rooms are located in a
two-storey block with an accompanying community centre. This block is looked after
by a resident caretaker and each bed-sitting room contains its own enclosed kitchen
unit, it being an aim to permit residents to keep a suitable degree of independence
and privacy whilst several units of accommodation are provided in an economical
and agreeable form under one roof. An additional feature is a guest room for
hire by residents to accommodate visitors overnight who could not conveniently
share their own bed-sitting rooms.
Redevelopment has also begun in Granville Road, Childs Hill and building is
now going on of two point blocks of flats to give accommodation to 120 families
during 1962.
Elsewhere the acquisition of properties by the Council in areas needing redevelopment
has resulted in many existing dwellings becoming available for housing
purposes and forming a useful, if short term, addition to the pool of accommodation
for the relief of overcrowding or other housing hardship.
Movement of families from Hendon to the New and Expanded Towns proceeded
steadily throughout 1961 and this Borough is now linked to thirteen outer housing
authorities for the purpose of nominating suitable applicants from the Hendon
area who can take up employment and settle with their families into permanent homes.
Nearly one hundred applications were dealt with and given support during 1961.
486 applications were registered on the Housing Waiting List from families
and a further 103 applications were recorded for Single Person's Accommodation
throughout the year. As might be anticipated the largest groups of applicants
comprised young married couples and persons of pensionable or approaching pensionable
age. Cases of acute housing hardship at the time of application are
relatively few but applicants frequently have in mind their need for improved
accommodation at a later time and look to the Council as the foremost organisation
to meet requirements in this respect.
The Housing Waiting List at 31st December 1961 numbered 2808 married family
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