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42
children are born to the couple. Sometimes, cases of overcrowding, though,
are the result of the occupants of houses accepting as lodgers or sub-tenants
individuals or families. To try to restrict new cases of overcrowding the
owners and tenants of houses from which families had been rehoused had their
attention drawn to their statutory obligations not to permit the overcrowding
of the accommodation over which they had control. Then, towards the end
of 1949, publicity was given to the fact that in regard to newly permitted
overcrowding which was not the result of the natural increase in the size
of the family, consideration would be given to the question of whether the
penal provisions of the Housing Act should not be used.
Of the outstanding new cases brought to light this year, in 34 the overcrowding
was the result of the natural increase in the family, and in 28 it
was through married children coming to live with parents. There were only
10 other cases in which the overcrowding in 5 was brought about by relatives
coming to the home, one by lodgers being accepted, and four were let so as to
be overcrowded. These figures which are similar to those of previous years
show that most new cases of overcrowding can be dealt with only by the
provision of alternative accommodation.

This table brings out the facts (1) that there has been a continuous fall
in the number of new cases each year since 1946 ; (2) that the number of
cases of overcrowding known to the Public Health Department abated by
rehousing in Council property has fallen each year since 1948, and (3) that
the rate at which cases are being abated by other means is also rapidly falling.
8. A house can be occupied by many persons without its being statutorily
overcrowded ; overcrowding by even as little as a half-unit can mean
families living in very difficult circumstances. Unfortunately, the relief of
overcrowding has not been most marked in those houses most crowded
(as contrasted with the position of the families with a member sufiering
from tuberculosis where the greatest relative improvement has been amongst
those worse placed). This is brought out by a comparison of the numbers of
families with the varying degrees of overcrowding of the houses in 1946
and in 1951. In 1946 the numbers of families living in accommodation
overcrowded by a half-unit, one unit, etc., were 185, 145, 80, 36, 22, 13, 9,
3, 0, 3, 0. The corresponding figures in 1951 were 114, 92, 37, 29, 8, 10, 1, 0,
1. 0, 1.
9. The post-war increase in the birth rate will result in an enlarged
age grouping which will pass as a wave for a number of years ; each child
will in some years result in crowded or in near crowded houses in the increase
of overcrowding by a half-unit when he becomes 10 years of age. Some
years later there will be all those extra numbers of young men and women
to marry and bring their wives or husbands to live with their parents. It