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In the application of these Tables, account is only to be
taken of rooms which are normally used in the locality either
as a living room or as a bedroom.
In applying Table II each room of the size mentioned is
to be reckoned as capable of accommodating the number set
out in the Table, and the aggregate for all the rooms in the
house is ascertained in this manner. The "permitted number"
for the house is the aggregate number so obtained or
the number given by Table I. whichever is the smaller.
In considering the application of the standard in relation
to particular families it is to be noted:—
(1) That in the case of a house part of which is sublet,
the rooms occupied by the sub-tenant constitute
a separate house;
(2) that children between the ages of 1 and 10 years
count as half a person and that a child under 1
year of age does not count at all:
(3) that apart from the number of persons who may
occupy a house there is an over-riding condition
that the accommodation available for a particular
family must be such that no two persons both of
10 years of age or over of opposite sexes,
except persons living together as husband and
wife, must sleep in the same room:
(4) that only rooms normally used in the locality for
slecping or living purposes are counted as rooms,
so that bathrooms, sculleries, etc., are not
counted as part of the accommodation.
The general effect is that overcrowding existing on the
appointed day (which has yet to be fixed by the Minister of
Health) is not an offence until alternative accommodation has
been offered and refused. Where there has been no change
of occupier since the appointed day and no addition to the
occupants except by births, then notwithstanding that the
house is overcrowded no offence is committed by the occupier
unless he refuses an offer of suitable alternative accommodation
or declines to take reasonable steps to get rid of some
person who is not a member of his family, such as a lodger
or sub-tenant.
Similiar safeguards are provided to cover cases where
families become overcrowded in course of time owing to
increase in the number or ages of the children or where a
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