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needs was to come to an end. On the other hand there was to be a subsidy of
£22 per house for building as a direct result from slum clearance. This
change is a substantial encouragement to local authorities to concentrate
their efforts on the abolition of the slum house.
Up to this an owner of a house condemned by slum clearance procedure
could obtain little in the way of compensation, receiving apart
from site value only something for good maintenance. This could cause
great hardship to those who, because they could not get any other house
in which to live, bought a house in an area which was later to be dealt
with by clearance, and who in addition to the initial cost had spent much
on improving the house, but where in spite of all that had been done, the
house could not be excluded from those to be dealt with. The Slum
Clearance (Compensation) Act 1956 introduced certain amendments—
1. Owner occupiers who had purchased houses between the outbreak
of the war and 12th December, 1955, and were still in occupation
should receive compensation at the same rate as if their houses had not
been declared unfit.
2. A similar arrangement for business premises.
3. Where accounts of expenditure could not be produced, the rates
of compensation payable in recognition of good maintenance should be
varied from time to time to make allowance for changes in the cost of
repairs. Individual houses declared unfit would also qualify for these
payments if in fact thev had been well maintained.

During the year the Minister of Housing and Local Government
confirmed the compulsory purchase order made under Section 29 of the
Housing Act 1936 on 1, 3, 5, 7, Pinner Hill Road. At the end of the year
all of these properties were vacant.