London's Pulse: Medical Officer of Health reports 1848-1972
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Hints from the Health Department. Leaflet from the archive of the Society of Medical Officers of Health. Credit: Wellcome Collection, London
Harrow 1953
[Report of the Medical Officer of Health for Harrow]
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35
for rehousing under the points scheme. The cases of these families, then,
were not considered by the Public Health Committee. The Committee
at their meeting on the 31st March recommended that 14 of the overcrowded
families be rehoused. At their October meeting a further four
were recommended, while the circumstances of three other families, all
living in Council houses, was brought to the notice of the Housing Committee.
The position at the end of the year, then, of these 55 families, was
that the vast majority had either been or were to be rehoused by the
Council either by the operation of the points scheme or on the recommendation
of the Public Health Committee because of the overcrowded
condition of the homes in which they were living. Only three families
were living in houses overcrowded by more than 2½ units ; one family
living in a house overcrowded by 3½ units and two families living in houses
overcrowded by 3 units. There were special reasons in these cases
for no recommendation having been made by the end of the year for
their rehousing. Apart from these cases, of all the families living in houses
overcrowded by more than 1 unit there remained at the end of the year
waiting to be considered ten families living in houses overcrowded by 2
units and 11 families living in houses overcrowded by li units.
The following table shows the various changes:—
| Units of Overcrowding | ||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 4 | 3½ | 3 | 2½ | 2 | 1½ | |
| Cases known March, 1953 | 1 | 2 | 7 | 6 | 14 | 25 |
| Rehoused in Council Houses | 1 | 1 | 2 | 4 | 7 | 5 |
| Otherwise abated | – | – | – | 1 | 1 | 5 |
| Overcrowding reduced to below 1½ units | – | – | 1 | 1 | – | 3 |
| Adjustment (subtraction) for variation in the degree of overcrowding | – | – | 2 | – | – | 4 |
| Adjustment (addition) for variation in the degree of overcrowding | – | – | – | – | 4 | 3 |
| Balance of outstanding cases | – | 1 | 2 | – | 10 | 11 |
Of the twenty-seven cases housed in Council houses, four were
rehoused out of the quota of houses for the overcrowded, and two out of
the quota for the tuberculous. Twenty-one families were rehoused
by the operation of the points scheme.
Since March, 30 new cases have become known. Of these seven
have been rehoused in Council houses and three have been abated by
other means. The total number of cases known to be overcrowded by
more than 1 unit at the end of the year is 44. Of these, one is overcrowded
by 4 units, two by 3½ units, two by 3 units, two by 2½ units, 14 by
2 units, and 23 by 1½ units.
In 1949 publicity was given to the fact that in regard to newly permitted
overcrowding which was not the result of the natural increase in