View report page

20
SECTION D.
HOUSING.
Number of new houses erected during the year.
25 houses were completed during the year 1949 by private
builders. The Council erected 365 houses during the year and 31
houses were rebuilt as a result of destruction by enemy action.
14 houses were erected by other local authorities during the year.
Hornchurch retained its place as the leading Urban District in
England and Wales for housing completion during the year, a lead
which has been maintained since the end of the war.
Overcrowding.
This problem is bound to be decreasing in degree as a result
of our very active building programme which reduces the number
of bad cases slowly but surely. In .common fairness, however, it
must be established that good reasons exist before such cases are
given high pointage as otherwise self-created and quite unjustifiable
overcrowding would form a passport to priority at the expense
of more deserving if less astute applicants.
130 visits were made by the staff to deal with overcrowding
enquiries.
Slum Clearance.
Individual cases have been cleared up and houses demolished
but no present opportunity exists for a radical attack on this problem
which, however, is of no great local dimensions.
Week-end bungalows constitute a special class which will
require careful review varying as they do so widely in standards of
construction.
Medical Priorities.
My advice was sought in 444 instances in which the medical aspect
of a housing or building licence application was emphasized.
112 visits were made by the staff to investigate points of doubt
in this regard.
It should be ensured that when a licence is granted for a new
house to be built due regard is paid to the future—or lack of it—
of the less satisfactory structure often on the same site as a new
building and temporarily occupied by the applicant during the construction
of the new building. Clearly if the temporary structure
was satisfactory little justification could under present circumstances
exist for supplanting it and hence its cessation as a human habitation
requires very careful preliminarv attention.