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offered to applicants. The war years saw a sharp decline in this turnover,
to such an extent that, as contrasted with a pre-war weekly figure of
4 to 8, the total number in the years 1942/44 was only 43. The district
lost, too, by enemy action, 369 houses of which 9 were Council houses.
An indication of the urgency of the problem is that in July, 1945, the
list of applicants was 6,000, though of the forms sent out to these only
2,750 were returned, of which something over one-half were from those
who were in, or who had been in, the Forces. At this time the special
cases deriving consideration on health grounds numbered 190, 21 on
account of tuberculosis and 107 because of overcrowding.
Partly to meet the needs of the most urgent and to provide something
at an earlier date than was possible by the construction of permanent
houses built by traditional methods, reliance had to be placed
on accommodation in temporary buildings. In this district, a start was
made in the summer on the construction of the first of some 50 prefabricated
bungalows of the American pattern, and later, a start was
made on the erection of Arcon houses on the Rayners Lane housing site.
In the meantime, the Council planned the construction of a number of
permanent houses. At their meeting in December, the Housing Committee
had before them the following programme of works involving
capital expenditure :—
Rayners Lane (Section 1) Erection of 72 houses.
Rayners Lane (Section 2) The construction of roads and sewers
for 96 Arcon houses.
Elmgrove Road The construction of roads and sewers
for the erection of 80 houses.
Woodlands, Harrow Weald The construction of roads and sewers
for the erection of 253 houses.
Clifton Road Erection of 8 flats.
Bessborough Road Rebuilding of 4 houses.
Elstree The construction of roads and sewers
for 188 temporary houses.
Camrose Avenue Erection of 45 houses.
Alexandra Avenue Erection of 132 flats.