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Health Acts, delegated to it by the Council. The bridging of the
interval between the demolition of old insanitary houses and the
provision of new dwellings is undoubtedly an essential part of any
long-term redevelopment programme, and an extremely complicated
and difficult task which the Public Health Committee has to face;
but in so doing can we afford to overlook the immediate problem?
Already there are a number of houses in the Borough which have
reached a stage where—in spite of all statutory action under the
Public Health Act, 1936—it has not been possible to bring about
any improvement in the insanitary conditions in which the occupants
are living. The position of these houses is one of stalemate—
for it appears that we can neither repair nor demolish. It would be
cold comfort for the occupants to be told that because of long-term
planning commitments the Council is unable to fulfil its statutory
duty of improving insanitary conditions; and this means in effect
that the tenants are deprived of their lawful right to complain.
The question to be considered is—how long can we reasonably
hope to evade taking decisive action in respect of such properties
whose numbers, having regard to the economic factor emphasised
earlier in this report and in the absence of new legislation, is likely
to increase rather than to diminish ?
Claims on New Housing Units.
It is highly probable that in the not-too-distant future the
Public Health Committee may be compelled by weight of public
opinion, in the interests of tenants and in fulfilment of its statutory
obligations, to recommend to the Council the making of demolition
or closing orders in appropriate cases under Sections 11 and 12 of
the Housing Act, 1936. The competing claims on available new
housing units, between the immediate need from the point of view
of public health and the long-term need in relation to future planning
and development, must therefore figure prominently in any future
consideration of the general question of housing development in the
Borough. As indicated earlier in this Report, we find it difficult to
conceive how a long-term redevelopment programme can be
formulated and operated with any degree of success unless provision
is first made for an allocation of re-housing units for occupants of
individual houses which, by reason of their bad structural condition,
have already reached or are rapidly reaching a state of total unfitness
for habitation and may therefore require urgent demolition many
years before the completion of the scheme of re-development, and
perhaps even before the scheme is due to be put into operation.