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29
OVERCROWDING.
Section 1 of the Housing Act, 1935, imposed an obligation on
every Local Authority to cause an inspection to be made with a
view to ascertaining what dwelling-houses are over-crowded ; and
to prepare and submit a return showing the result of the inspection
and the number of new houses required to abate the overcrowding ;
and, unless they are satisfied that the required number of new
houses will be otherwise provided, to prepare and submit proposals
for the provision thereof.
It was decided that the preliminary enumeration of the occupants
and of the available accommodation of the working-class
houses be undertaken by temporary enumerators. This survey
was begun in December, 1935, and completed by April, 1936. The
result of the preliminary survey showed that some five hundred
houses were provisionally overcrowded, more than half these houses
being in nineteen roads, those with the largest number of overcrowded
houses being: Vancouver Road, Glenalmond Road, Ruskin
Gardens, Herga Road, The Chase, Weald Lane, Malvern Gardens,
Roxeth Green Avenue, Bengarth Drive, Parkfield Road and Repton
Road. In about three-quarters of these houses, sub-letting occurred;
in 15 per cent. only one family resided, but in the remaining 10 per
cent. there was at least one occupant additional to the members
of the family. At the time of survey, in the actual roads surveyed
there were found to be 423 empty houses and 89 empty flats or
parts of houses.
The measuring of the houses was undertaken by the Sanitary
Inspectors. The actual number of houses proved to be overcrowded
according to the standards laid down by the Act was 152, or 1.17
per cent. of the 12,943 houses surveyed. 66 of these were overcrowded
by ½ unit, and 49 by one unit. In nearly 50 per cent. of
the cases the crowding occurred by reason of the occupation by two
separate families of a house designed for the use of one.
As it was appreciated that there were many changes in occupancy
of the houses in this district, just before the May meeting,
at which consideration was to be given to the Council's proposals
tor the abatement of overcrowding, these 152 premises were visited
to ascertain if the same conditions prevailed as were found at the
time of the survey. This step revealed that over forty of the houses were no longer overcrowded,
The following table was submitted
as showing the manner in which the overcrowding in the houses
occurred and the number of the various types of houses required to
provide alternative accommodation of such a nature that the
transferred families would no longer be overcrowded.