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143
X.—HOUSING
OVERCROWDING
The 1st April, 1938, was fixed as the appointed day for section 62 of the Housing
Act, 1936, and the 1st October, 1938, as the appointed day for sections 6 (2), 59,
60 and 64 of the Act in respect of overcrowding provisions. From the 1st October,
therefore, new overcrowding has been an offence in circumstances bringing it within
the relative sections of the Act.
The overcrowding survey which was carried out during 1935 brought to light
the fact that 72 families living in properties owned by the Borough Council were overcrowded.
At the end of 1938 twenty-two families were still overcrowded. Of the
7 families dealt with 2 were rehoused by the London County Council and 5 by the
Borough Council.
Action taken in respect of overcrowding.
During the year 1938, 195 cases of overcrowding were abated as a result of enquiry
and action by the sanitary staff, and in some cases as a result of reports to the Housing
Committee. The London County Council accommodated 136 of these families and in the
other 59 instances the accommodation was obtained from other sources. In addition
to these cases 135 families were re-housed by the London County Council in connection
with their slum clearance programme and as a result of representations made to
the London County Council regarding the health of certain members of the family.
Results of the overcrowding survey of 1938.
It will be recalled that as a result of the overcrowding survey undertaken in
1935 it was ascertained that 3,887 families in the borough were living in overcrowded
conditions. The number of overcrowded families in each ward at that time were
asshown in the bottom line of tableNo. 131. The survey undertaken in the summer of
1938 showed that there had been a spectacular decrease in the amount of overcrowding
and this decrease was common to all the wards of the borough. In two of the wards,
namely, Whitmore and Acton, the overcrowding had been more than halved.