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Revision of Council's Underground Room Regulations.
At the request of the Minister of Housing and Local Government the Council,
during 1954, reviewed the operation of regulations made by them in 1939 for securing
the proper ventilation and lighting of underground rooms to which the Housing
Act, 1936, applies, and for their protection against dampness and effluvia.
The regulations apply to rooms used for human habitation where the surface of
the floor is more than 3 feet below the surface of the street adjoining.
Revised model regulations prepared by the Ministry have been considered by
the Council. There is a new requirement regarding floors that the site concrete
shall resist the passage of moisture and that there should be a space of at least 3
inches between the underside of the lowest timber of the floor and the site concrete ;
this space to be thoroughly ventilated.
The provisions regarding ventilation are modified so that the ventilation of a
room without a fireplace must be by an opening or air-shaft of at least 30 square
inches to the open air. Regarding windows, there is a reduction in the required
window area from one-eighth to one-tenth of the floor area.
The Council have subsequently amended their existing regulations and so have
brought them into line with the Ministry's new model.
Certificates of Disrepair.
During the year the Housing Repairs and Rents Act, 1954, came into operation.
This Act enables a landlord whose property is in good condition and who has spent
on maintenance the amount of money laid down to claim a repairs increase on the
rent. If the tenant, after receiving a notice of increase, is of the opinion that the
house is not in good condition he may at any time apply to the local authority
for a Certificate of Disrepair. The Certificate granted to a tenant must specify all
the defects existing at the premises, and if and when the landlord remedies these
defects he may then apply to the local authority for the revocation of the Certificate,
and if the Certificate is revoked the repairs increase will then become payable. The
Act came into operation on the 31st August, and at the end of the year a total
of 26 applications from tenants for the issue of Certificates of Disrepair following
the service of notices by the landlord had been dealt with. Five of these applications
were refused, the conditions at the premises not being sufficiently serious as
to warrant the issue of such a Certificate. A Certificate issued to a tenant is
retrospective in its effect from the date on which the tenant applies for the Certificate.
During the year the Council also issued three Certificates of Disrepair to tenants
under the Rent and Mortgage Interest (Restrictions) Acts, the houses in question
not being in a reasonable state of repair. These Certificates entitle the tenants to
withhold part of the rent increase permitted by the Acts. One application was
received from a landlord for the revocation of a Certificate of Disrepair, and the
Health Committee, on being satisfied that the premises had been put into a reasonable
state of repair, decided to revoke the Certificate.
Housing Progress.
The number of dwellings built in the Borough of Woolwich during 1954 is
summarised as follows:—
By the Borough Council 164
By the London County Council 81
By Private Enterprise 130
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