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BARNET URBAN DISTRICT COUNCIL.
CHIEF SANITARY INSPECTOR'S REPORT.
Public Health Department,
31 Wood Street,
Barnet.
To the Chairman and Members of
the Barnet Urban District Council.
Ladies and Gentlemen,
I have the honour to present to you my Annual Report giving details of the
work of the Department during the year 1950 in administering the various Acts,
Regulations and Byelaws in force in the district.
With the ever rising cost of materials and labour, property owners are
finding it increasingly difficult to maintain their houses in a proper state of
repair within the economic limits of a pre-war controlled rental. There appears
to be little, if any, prospect of adjustment of these controlled rents, and this
does have some bearing on the action taken to enforce repairs under the Housing
Act, 1936. With the smaller property, in particular, the stage will soon be
reached where the only procedure available will be that of Section 11 of the Act,
which means demolition of the property if the owner is not prepared to spend an
unreasonable amount of money on repairs, having regard to the value of the house,
which value is set by the controlled rent and not by any hypothetical vacant
possession valuation.
Under the present conditions of housing shortage, the demolition of houses,
although of great importance from the point of view of the health of the occupants
does nothing but aggravate an already serious position.
INSPECTION OF DISTRICT.
General Inspections of the district have been carried out periodically and
all complaints investigated.
The process of serving a preliminary or intimation notice upon the person in
default, specifying the works necessary to remedy the defects found, is usually
followed. It was found necessary to ask your authority to serve only twentyeight
Statutory Notices, where persons failed to comply with the preliminary