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72
housing purposes owing to the extreme difficulty in providing other
accommodation for the persons who would he displaced as a result
of such action. Unfortunately there is no immediate prospect of
large-scale slum clearance operations under the Housing Act.
Having regard to the before-mentioned factors it is not
surprising that during the year under review some 1,542 complaints
were received and dealt with by the Sanitary Inspectors. In almost
every instance the complaint concerned some item or items of
disrepair which had given rise to undesirable conditions such as
dampness, leaking roofs, broken wall plaster, decayed floor timbers
and the like. The economic factor already referred to is reflected
in the high percentage of cases in respect of which it was necessary
for the Sanitary Inspectors to initiate formal statutory action.
In spite of the difficulties, however, a considerable amount of
repair work to dwelling houses was carried out during the year as
a result of notices served under the Public Health Act, 1936, and
relevant legislation. Details of the improvements effected by
completion of work specified on sanitary notices are given elsewhere
in this report, although the benefit to the occupants in the terms of
comfort and health cannot be measured or fully appreciated by
reference to figures.

*This figure includes notices outstanding from previous year.