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and three small bedrooms: one of the young women is
suffering from consumption; (j) a widow (tenant), man,
wife, girl of 14, and the wife's adult brother in kitchen,
scullery and one bedroom.
It is practically impossible to take legal action to
abate the overcrowding in this district at the present
time. The Courts will not give us an order against the
people concerned when there is no alternative accommodation
to offer them. Where possible we insist upon
lodgers being got rid of, and sitting rooms being used
for sleeping quarters to temporarily ease the position.
(III) Fitness of Houses.
(1) (a) The general standard of housing in the area
is good.
(b) There are 46 houses in the district which should
be closed as unfit. They are old houses and are damp,
owing to defective roof-timbers, and are generally difficult
to keep in repair.
(c) As mentioned above, most of the unfit property
is very old; I do not think that the unfitness is caused
by mismanagement or neglect of either owner or tenant,
but by natural causes, and also perhaps by original defects
in the building.
(2) General action taken as regards unfit houses.
(a) No Closing Orders were made by the Council
under the Public Health Acts during 1925.
(b) Two notices were served under the Housing
Acts.
(c) Five cottages in Pinner were voluntarily closed
for repairs.
Repairs have been carried out in several unfit houses
to make them as habitable as possible until such times
as they can be closed.
Two houses in Salt Box Row, Edgware, became
unoccupied and the owner practically rebuilt them and
made them into lock-up shops.
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