View report page

56
Inspection of Houses.
The vast majority of the houses in the Borough are old, and many are worn
out. The gardens or open spaces at the rear have been partly or wholly built over
in hundreds of houses. Factories or workshops have been erected in many, and
sculleries or back addition rooms in others.
The general character of the defects found in the houses inspected was due to
dilapidations following inattention or neglect during the war years.
50,201 houses were inspected, 14,812 being the result of house-to-house
inspections. 25,513 intimation notices were served for the abatement of the various
nuisances and it was necessary for these to be followed by 15,007 statutory notices.
The owners carried out the necessary work in 10,406 houses without waiting for the
statutory notices. The readiness on the part of the owners to remedy any nuisance
immediately it is brought to their notice, is not so marked as it was before the war,
due probably to the increased cost of labour and building materials and their
scarcity. All the statutory notices were not complied with until police court
proceedings were taken, which became necessary in 140 cases.
Having regard to the difficulties, the Council decided to take advantage of
Section 28 of the Housing of the Working Classes Act, 1919, and to undertake
themselves the repair of houses which were not reasonably fit for human habitation,
where the owners failed to comply with the requirements of notices served upon
them.
At their meeting on January 27th the Public Health Committee decided to
recommend the Council to appoint five temporary Sanitary Inspectors to inspect,
report, and carry out their work generally under the Housing of the Working
Classes Act, 1919, and thus to assist the district Inspectors working under the
Public Health Act, 1891, and by-laws, includiug those of houses-let-in-lodgings,
in making a house to house inspection of the Borough as rapidly as possible.
These five Inspectors were appointed and commenced their duties in August,
1920.
A house to house inspection was organised throughout the Borough. It was
operated simultaneously in 20 districts and great progress was made.
The five temporary inspectors made a house to house inspection in their respective
areas and served an intimation notice in the ordinary way. If the defects
were not remedied, a second inspection took place and a specification was drawn up
of the whole work required and submitted to the Council for their approval and
for authority to serve a notice under Section 28.
Mr. Forbes commenced in the area bounded on the east by the canal and Canal
Road, on the west by White Horse Lane, on the north by Mile End Road and on
the south by Ben Jonson Road. A good many of the streets were inspected
by the district inspector and the remainder by Mr. Forbes.