View report page

22
SECTION D.
HOUSING
Number of new houses erected during the year.
631 houses were completed during the year by private builders.
The Council's own housing scheme produced a total of 64 dwellings
during the year.
Overcrowding.
Opportunity is taken when enquiring into the circumstances of
housing applicants for medical priority to investigate the presence
of possible overcrowding and as some 209 visits for this purpose were
made during the year the overcrowding position was kept reasonably
under review.
Nine cases of overcrowding were reported to the Council during
the year.
Sub-standard Property.
Demolition orders were made in respect of:—
" St. Teresa," Berwick Road, Rainham.
1, Finches Cottages, North Street,
118, North Street,
120, North Street,
" The Brook," Frederick Road, Rainham,
Elms Farm, Briscoe Road,
" Rosedene," Briscoe Road,
" Zanda," Stanley Road North,
Premises at rear of " Bretby," Stanley Road North,
117, Butts Green Road.
Our policy of dealing with individual unfit houses was therefore
continued with effect. The dwellings concerncd were mainly either
old in the central part of the area or temporary type dwellings in the
Rainham area.
We are gradually producing a different picture in the week-end
dwelling position and with perseverance may well secure that health
and amenity will alike benefit from our efforts.
Itinerant Population.
The problem arising here is frequently related to that of the
sub-standard dwelling since it is found that the occupants of these
dwellings, especially those of the week-end type, have often arrived
there by the arduous paths of lodgings or caravans. It is obviously
just that families arriving in our district should not secure rapid Council
re-housing at the expense of our old and normal inhabitants and because
they have placed themselves in conditions demanding urgent
hygienic attention. On the other hand these are family units—often
with one or more children—which surely must eventually have a
right to be re-housed by some Authority somewhere and it does seem
that an outstanding difficulty still is for, as I have termed them, the
itinerant family to secure a place on the Housing list of any Authority.
It certainly is not to the financial gain of families of this type to remain