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43
the family had been nominated by the Council on grounds of housing need.
The Housing Committee agreed to this arrangement, and agreed to nominate
automatically for such transfer all new applicants who at the time of
application have a qualifying period of twelve months residence in the
borough.
Allocation of New Houses
When the first of the housing units became available after the war
the Council decided to allocate them on a points system, the points
being earned by a variety of factors. Three groups of persons remained
outside this scheme whose applications were dealt with independently.
Of these three groups the overcrowded family was later brought into the
points scheme by additional points being given because of the overcrowding.
This left two groups outside the scheme. One was the family
living in the condemned house. This family was helped by the Public
Health Committee making an appropriate recommendation to the Housing
Committee at the time it made an Order condemning the house. The
other group was the family with a member suffering from tuberculosis.
To meet the needs of those in this group, one-sixth of the housing accommodation
which became available was allotted to them. Later when
the families with the greatest claim to be rehoused on these grounds had
been helped, the ratio was altered to one-tenth. Although many of the
applications for rehousing are supported by medical certificates urging
the need for an improvement in the living conditions of the family,
these applications have not been considered by the Public Health
Committee. Instead they are referred for consideration by the Subcommittee
of the Housing Committee which deals with all applications
based on hardship.
For each of the last few years the Housing Management Subcommittee
has carried out a review of the housing situation to decide on
the allocation of what new houses might become available in the coming
year. Each year the Committee has been faced with the position that
fewer houses had come along than had been expected and that the total
numbers anticipated would be less than had previously been expected.
Coupled with the smaller numbers of houses available for consideration,
has been the increase in the number of commitments carried over from
the previous period which considerably reduced the numbers to be
available for allocation.
The Public Health Committee were becoming increasingly concerned
at the situation facing them. Without there being any systematic housing
inspection, particulars of houses were being brought to their notice
following receipt of complaints from the tenants about the state of the
nouses they were living in. In so many of these there was no alternative
but to the Committee making one of the Orders condemning the house.
At the same time they made further recommendations to the already
embarrassed Housing Committee about the rehousing of the occupants.
In a report submitted in April, reference was made to the 17 houses the
subject of confirmed Clearance Orders which were still occupied, 32 houses
in areas the subject of official representations and 35 houses the subject of
Closing or Demolition Orders, a total of 84. A further 44 units of