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The number of inspections made in 1920 under Section 28 of the Housing
and Town Planning Act, 1919, was 2,995, which necessitated the serving of
2,772 intimation notices, followed by 707 statutory notices authorised by the
Council and served by the Town Clerk. The owners did not comply with
the notices and the Borough Engineer carried out the necessary work in 50
houses.
50,201 inspections were made to houses in 1920,14,812 being the result of
house-to-house inspections. 25,518 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 bouses 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 to their scarcity. All the
statutory notices were not complied with until police court proceedings were
taken, which became necessary in 140 cases.
During 1921 statutory notices were served to remedy defects in 12,124
houses.
The intention of the Borough Council was to continue serving notices
under the Housing and Town Planning Act, and to carry out the work themselves
if the owners failed to do so. When the estimated cost was submitted to the
proper Committee, it was so large that it was not thought practicable to incur
this amount out of current rate, and an attempt was made to obtain authority
from the Ministry of Health and the London County Council to raise a loan which
could be repaid from the rents of the houses which were repaired under the
Act. The Council was informed that this was illegal, and that it was not
possible to authorise the raising of a loan for this purpose. The activity of
the Council was thus restricted, and the Inspectors were instructed to serve
notices under the Public Health Act, except in very urgent cases, when the
authority of the Finance Committee had to be specially obtained. Recovery
of the money by taking the rents can only be obtained by applying to the
Police Court Magistrate, who has the power to spread the repayment over a
period of 30 years. The result of continuing the work under the Housing
and Town Planning Act would be the raising of a large sum of money by
means of the current rate, the benefits from the rents being available for
succeeding years to the advantage of Councils following. This was not considered
satisfactory and therefore very few repairs comparatively were actually
done by the Borough Council. 2,835 inspections were made during the year 1922
under Section 28, and in most instances they were complied with before they
were reported to the Council. 27 notices were 'served by the Council giving