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47
who had only two rooms each. In the four where the permitted number
was 2 units, there were two families with the equivalent of 2½ units and
two of 3 units. In one two-roomed flat with a permitted number of 2½
units there was a family equivalent of 4 units; in another a family with
an equivalent number of 5 units.
New Housing
The total number of new dwellings provided in this district from the
end of the war up to the 31st December, 1959, was 5,963. Of these, 2,717
were new permanent council dwellings and 200 were new temporary
dwellings. 2,426 permanent dwellings have been provided by private
enterprise. 338 dwellings destroyed by enemy action were rebuilt and 334
existing houses were converted. At the end of the previous year, the number
of permanent council dwellings provided was 2,596 and the number
of buildings provided by private enterprise 2,087.
In addition, 954 family dwelling units were provided in requisitioned
premises. By the end of the year, all but 44 of these had been released.
The Minister of Housing and Local Government said in January
that the council housing programme for the erection of 157 dwellings
and 64 garages during 1959 could only be approved in respect of 72
dwellings (i.e. those contemplated up to the 30th September). They did
suggest, though, depending on the overall housing problem later, that the
remaining 78 dwellings scheduled for the Northolt Road clearance area
in the last quarter of the year might be agreed.
Further use was made during the year of the arrangements for the
removal of Harrow families to the New or Expanded Towns, 259 Harrow
families being housed during the year. By the end of the year, the total
number of families who had been housed under these arrangements was
1,896, of which 655 were from the normal housing list. Most of these
removals were to the New Towns of Hemel Hempstead, Stevenage and
Harlow and the Expanded Towns of Bletchley and Swindon. Smaller
numbers went to Welwyn, Hatfield, Basildon, Bracknell and Aylesbury.
New Towns. In March, 1958, the Middlesex County Council
convened a Conference to learn the views of the County District Councils
in regard to the provision of a New Town to take the County's overspill
population. The Conference favoured the County Council making enquiries
of the Minister about using the provisions of the New Town Act.
The reply was that it was not the Government's intention that these
provisions should be used to create further New Towns in England and
Wales, and that if a local authority felt a New Town was needed, it
should consider building one with the help of the special subsidies available
under Section 3 of the Housing Subsidies Act, 1956. To a further conference
held in May, the County Planning Officer reported that most
New Towns were likely to complete their schemes by 1967, and that he
that at least one New Town of 50,003 population, coupled with
smaller town development schemes for 10,000 people, were needed to
maintain the rate of provision for Middlesex families for the next four