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40
VI.—HOUSING CONDITIONS.
There are no slums in Bromley, and no area warranting
scheduling for clearance or improvement under Part
I. of the Housing Act, 1930. Houses are being dealt
with successfully under Part II. of the Act, and before
the "5-year period" has elapsed those few unfit individual
houses will have been remedied of defects or
demolished. It must not be overlooked when considering
the Housing question, that Bromley is not a manufacturing
town, and if low rental houses of the working
class type are erected to excess it "will lose much of its
charm as a "dormitory" town of London. To date the
Local Authority has erected 524 houses for the working
classes—4.5 per cent. of total number of inhabited
houses.
Overcrowding.
Seventeen houses were visited on complaint of overcrowding,
and in 8 cases conditions were remedied.
When overcrowding exists in a one-family house, and
the re-distribution of sleepers is not practicable extreme
hardships would occur if statutory action was taken.
Legal action is always taken when overcrowding is found
in houses occupied by two or more families.
Prevalent Defects in Housing.
Appendix VIII. indicates the prevalent defects
found in houses, viz., unpaved yards, drinking water
from cisterns, want of ventilation to food stores, worn
stone sinks, insanitary box seats to W.C.s, dampness due
to porosity of bricks, absence of, or perished damp-proof
courses, and defective roofs, rain water glittering and
pipes.
It was not found necessary to take summary proceedings
to enforce the abatement of nuisances. The co-operative
action between owners, agents, tenants and the
sanitary inspectors continues to get the necessary work
carried out effectively in an amicable manner.
Houses Let in Lodgings.
With a rapidly increasing population and during
times of economic stress this problem becomes an acute