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55
Overcrowding—Provision of Alternative Accommodation.
Report by the Medical Officer of Health to Public Health
Committee—April, 1937.
I beg to submit, for the information and consideration of the
Housing Committee, the following observations contained in my
last monthly report to the Public Health Committee. Since these
observations were made I have visited two additional cases of overcrowding
and I take this opportunity of bringing these three
cases to the attention of the Committee.
Under the provisions of the Housing Act, 1935, Local Authorities
have been given considerable powers to secure the abatement of
overcrowding. Circumstances arise in which prosecution is the
only remedy, but in the recently issued Circular 1591 the Minister
of Health relies on Local Authorities to carry out the difficult task
of administration with discretion and sympathy and to recognise
that the object of the Act is to help overcrowded families and not
to injure them. From experience during the last few years it is
evident that a large proportion of overcrowded families can and
do obtain more suitable accommodation when they realise that
the Local Authority intend to take proceedings. On the other
hand there are families, overcrowded through no fault of their
own, who require and deserve any help the Local Authority can
give. Circular 1591 states that such overcrowding should be
abated by finding the family a house of suitable size, suitably
situated and suitably rented, in which they can lead a healthy and
comfortable life.
Experience at Papworth Village Settlement (Cambridgeshire)
has shown that on a trade union rate of wage it is possible to nourish
and bring up a family in such a way as to prevent the children
from contracting tuberculosis. In that village of over 400 persons
no child has contracted tuberculosis in any known form ; yet these
healthy children are the offspring of parents who suffer from active
tuberculosis. Much of the success of the village settlement is due
to the proper housing conditions (e.g., thorough ventilation of
living rooms, isolation of infectious persons in separate bedrooms,
etc.), which allow medical advice to be put into practice. Similar
encouraging results have been reported at Preston Hall (Kent),
at Peamount (Dublin), in America and in France.