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Overcrowding.—The Council are under obligation on the application of either
the landlord or the occupier to give in writing the permitted number of persons in
respect of any dwelling. In order to do so it is necessary to measure the house.
The number of houses measured during the year was 679. The number of permitted
number notices supplied to landlords and occupiers was 1,096.
At the end of 1937 the number of dwellings overcrowded was 390. During the
year 51 new cases of overcrowding were discovered and 211 cases were relieved.
The number of families living in overcrowded conditions at the end of the year
was 230. This figure is given with reserve and it is best to regard it simply as the
number of families known to be living under overcrowded conditions.
The figure 211 above has been arrived at in the following way:—additional
accommodation for overcrowded families was found by re-arrangement of lettings
in the same house in 34 instances ; in four instances where the permitted number
was wrong a correction showed that there was no overcrowding; it was found that
38 families had become sufficiently reduced in number through persons leaving
to get married and setting up house of their own or through death, and that 98
families had removed to other unknown addresses. The number of cases re-housed
by the Woolwich Borough Council as part of their general housing policy or through
slum clearance was 17, and by the London County Council as part of their abatement
of overcrowding policy, 6. Fourteen cases were dealt with in other ways.
Knowledge of fresh overcrowding came to the department in different ways.
In 26 instances an overcrowded occupier applied for re-housing; on 2 occasions
the owner complained, on one occasion the occupier, while 22 cases were discovered
by the sanitary inspectors. No legal proceedings were instituted in respect of overcrowding
during the year.
Inspection of Houses.—The number of houses inspected in accordance with
the provisions of the Housing (Consolidated) Regulations, 1925 and 1932, was
452. The action taken in regard to individual houses during the year is as set out
in the following Table No. 32.