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be housed. Of the remainder, some forty-two were husband and wife
families only, and as such were no longer eligible for housing. Eighty-six
had acquired their own houses, sixty-four had become the principal
tenants of whole houses and a further thirty-nine had moved to some
other address. The general housing list therefore was then some 571
applicants. Other families had applied to have their names put on the
housing waiting list but had not up to then qualified for housing, but
their additional points due to the increased length of residence and also
because of other children in the family possibly made them eligible.
The New and Expanded Towns list which was opened in September,
1952 contained some 1,318 names.
Health Considerations in allocation. The following is a copy of
a report of the Medical Officer of Health submitted to the Housing
Management Sub-Committee at their meeting to consider future policy
in regard to the letting of Corporation houses:—
1. The three groups of families about which the Public Health Committee
or the Public Health Department makes recommendations for
rehousing are those living in condemned houses, those with a member
suffering from pulmonary tuberculosis, and those living in overcrowded
conditions.
2. The return sent by the Council to the Ministry of Housing and Local
Government in the summer of 1955 as their slum clearance programme
referred to 577 houses. There are seventy-four families in unfit houses
which are the subject of Demolition, Closing or Clearance Orders. There
are a further twenty-three families in houses where an Order is pending
or where action which will bring about the same result is being taken. In
addition there are the ninety-nine "pink" houses in the Northolt Road
clearance proposals; although not all of these houses were approved by
the Minister for demolition, all of them will have to be dealt with at much
the same time. These amount to 196 families. Of the original 577 houses
action has yet to be started on 356. Since the time of the survey for the
preparation of the return of the slum clearance programme, there has
been a big movement by the owners to improve many of these smaller
properties. So much is being done on these lines these days that it could
be that up to half of the houses not yet dealt with might be saved. If this
should prove to be the case, instead of the 356 houses needing to be
dealt with, the number may be only 178. To house the occupants of
these, 188 houses will be wanted. On this basis, the total number of families
to be rehoused from unfit houses is 196 plus 188, that is 384.
3. The Council has for some time been able to consider for rehousing
on the grounds of overcrowding only those families where the overcrowding
is by more than one unit, and more recently have been able to
help only those where the overcrowding has been brought about by the
natural increase in the size of the family or by the ageing of the childrenMany
overcrowded families have of course been rehoused by the Counci
on grounds other than of overcrowding. The number of cases of overcrowding
has fallen steadily from 229 in 1952 to eighty-six at the beginning
of last year, to seventy-two at the end of last year. Of this seventy-two in
only twenty-two was the overcrowding by more than one unit.