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These figures include 20 Council Houses which had been alloted in
former years to persons with large families who were in need of accommodation.
It was found that most of the overcrowded houses were occupied by
one family only and that the cause of the overcrowding was too few bedrooms
in relation to the size of the family.
In some cases sub-letting to a second family was the cause but here
again as a rule only one family of the two had insufficient accommodation
and a more judicious selection of the subtenant would have avoided any
overcrowding.
The fact is that in a new residential district such as Hornchurch there
appears to be no need for overcrowding to occur.
The only difficulty arises in those few large families who have been
unable to obtain a large enough house.
Provision of New Houses.
It was found that most of the cases of overcrowding could be dealt
with by the provision of new houses in two centres, namely, one in Rainham
and one in the Village of Hornchurch.
In the former the Council were already in possession of suitable building
land and for the latter it was decided to transfer for building, land already
owned by the Council which was being used for another purpose. The
Council also decided to provide small dwellings for young couples or for
old people in addition to the bigger houses for large families.