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50,000 at Stevenage. Hemel Hempstead, which is to expand by 37,000,
has already accepted 100 families from this district. For each of these
towns, a development corporation has been set up which is responsible
for the planning of the building. The local authority for each area, however,
exercises its ordinary powers.
A different type of development is provided for under the Town
Development Act, 1952, under which smaller towns are to be expanded,
some of them to two or three times their present population. This
development is in the interests not so much of those in the existing towns
as of those in other towns which cannot meet the housing needs of their
populations. In the earlier stages then, the development will be financed
by the Government. Authorities whose families are accepted by these
towns may be looked to to contribute towards the rates a sum in respect
of each house for a number of years. The two towns under which
development is taking place on these lines which are most likely to be
of interest to those in this district, are Bletchley, to which some families
have already gone, and Aylesbury.
Allocation of new Houses.
As there is not sufficient land available in the district to provide
sites for all the houses needed to meet the various demands for new
houses made by those in the district, the Housing Management SubCommittee
asked the Public Health Committee to give an indication of
the numbers of houses needed for its different purposes. A summary
of the findings, as presented in the report in November, 1951, was that
386 houses were needed to rehouse those families at present living in
houses which ought, within the next few years, to be considered for
demolition; to house those families with an open case of tuberculosis at
present known to be living under unsatisfactory conditions and to house
those other families expected to become known in the next five years
195 houses will be needed; and to house those known to-day to be living
in overcrowded conditions, 293 houses are needed.
The Housing Management "Sub-Committee considered reports indicating
what sites might become available on which the Council might
build new houses and what the demands would be for those houses which
become available. The following is an extract from a report of the
decision of the meeting of the Housing Committee on the matter as set
out in a report presented to the Public Health Committee at their meeting
on 14th October, 1952: —
" The Demand.
(i) Number of applicants on the main waiting list, who at 1st
July, 1952, had been given an official promise to be rehoused 65
(ii) Number of applicants on main waiting list who qualified at
1st July, 1952, to be rehoused, but to whom no promise has
been given 93
(iii) One-sixth allocation for tuberculosis cases at present outstanding
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