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viding new houses warrants such a step being taken so as to prevent the
loss of yet another house to add to the difficulties of the housing situation.
If the condition of a number of adjacent properties is unsatisfactory
and it is felt that the houses cannot be repaired at a reasonable
cost, the procedure is not the making of individual demolition orders
but of a clearance order. No use has been made of these powers of
the Housing Act since the end of the war.
Overcrowding.
1. The survey carried out as required by the Housing Act, 1936,
showed that of the 12,943 houses visited, 152 were overcrowded as judged
by the standards of the Housing Act. By 1941, the number of overcrowded
premises had been reduced to 17. The figure remained low
for the next three years. Towards the end of 1945, however, there was
a marked increase, which was followed by a still greater rise in 1946,
when 486 new cases were added to the register. Since then there has
been an increase each year, though a diminishing one. On the other
hand, the number of houses in which the overcrowding has been abated
has increased, so that the stage had been reached in 1948 when the
number of cases abated (234) approximated to the 275 new cases. The
number of overcrowded houses reached its hitherto highest level of 628
at the end of 1948.
2. The Housing Act provides for a statutory permitted number for a
house let as a whole and a separate permitted number for each portion
let separately. In many cases the overcrowding, then, may be in one
room only, where that is let separately, while the number of occupants
in the house as a whole might not exceed the permitted number. Even
though the sub-tenant family were related to the principal tenants, if
the sub-tenant family was restricted to the use of certain rooms, the
permitted number for these was assessed and if this was exceeded by
the equivalent number of occupants, that letting was ranked as being
overcrowded.
Of the 628 cases of overcrowded houses, 237 were instances of overcrowding
in rooms though the house as a whole was not overcrowded.