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26
Re-Housing Medical Aspects.
During the year advice was sought on the degree of priority which
should be accorded some 175 housing applications respecting which
medical recommendations for priority had been submitted by the
private practitioner.
In general the basis for seeking priority remained much as it has
done over the years and many of the conditions represented in the
certificates were of a type which, whilst well-founded medically were
nevertheless not of an order to justify a substantial degree of priority.
Each applicant naturally enough considers his own case to be almost
without peer but when one has to take a broad view it must perforce
tone down the general effect produced by medical certification.
No case of real outstanding appeal in which the public health is
seriously prejudiced and which is brought to my notice goes without
being fully considered by the Committee in the full light of the circumstances
and no such case has yet in my view been rejected.
Overcrowding.
Although during the year some insight into the extent of this
problem was necessarily given through the environmental report visits
carried out by my District Inspectors, the time does not yet appear
opportune to conduct the large scale survey which alone would provide
a concise picture. In these days of rapid housing development, the
position must necessarily be changing almost from day to day, and the
overall housing position should be much more stable before one can
embark upon a special survey with any degree of confidence.
Instances are apparent where in spite of the fact that the legal
standards may be complied with, practical standards are giving more
cause for concern. You have, for example, the couple who on marriage
have a self-contained flat of say two rooms with a kitchen, and in due
course on the arrival of a family may find themselves having to bring
up two or three children in precisely the same accommodation and
without having any optimistic prospect of early betterment. In the
case of the large families, which are relatively few in number, in spite
of the fact that there is a " permitted number," it seems to me that an
exceptionally large family is better re-housed in any reasonable accommodation
which is larger than their existing house even although such
accommodation may not be of an optimum character.
General District Development.
The year has seen a period of intense activity in building as the
figures clearly reveal. During the year the Council built 78 houses and
1,371 houses were built by private enterprise. Notably was the private
development taking place in the Hall Lane, Front Lane area of
Upminster and Cranham, and private development in the South
Hornchurch area adjoining the aerodrome. When one considers the
increased calls made upon the sewers and the inevitable implications
such development has upon the general services for the area, it will be
seen that a vast problem confronts us.
It would seem that without " green belt " restrictions the problem
would have been a much greater one and one can only hope that in the