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48
or five years, after which further supplemental schemes would be necessary.
The Conference "having agreed that there is housing need in Middlesex
asked the County Council to explore further the means of meeting
that need, and to report back to a further conference of local authorities
in Middlesex." On the question of whether or not the County Council
should be given out-county housing powers, the Housing Committee favoured
concerted action by the local authorities in Middlesex with the advisory
support of the County Council, with a view to the setting up of a
New Town or Towns.
Allocation of New Houses
Waiting List. In 1958, it was decided that an application should
not normally be considered from a person whose income or the household
income exceeded £1,000 per annum. This was amended during the year to:
(1) normally no application be considered where the joint gross income
of the husband or wife exceeds £1,000 per annum, (2) that a general
and financial hardship as well as housing need shall be taken into account
when assessing the degree of priority to be accorded to a particular case.
When the Housing Management Sub-Committee on the 9th February
undertook the customary annual review of the Council's housing situation,
it was then anticipated the building programme was 474 dwellings.
Of these, 147 would be available by March, 1960.
There were 739 applicants under the Council's new housing policy.
The existing demand, including commitments of 80 dwellings
carried over from the previous year, comprised a need of the Civic Centre
Sub-Committee for an additional allocation over the next two years of
59 dwellings for rehousing further families from the Poets Corner area,
together with the earmarking of a further 26 later on, a priority need of
some 90 families still occupying requisitioned accommodation which
must be dealt with before 31st March, 1960, and the needs for larger
houses of tenants occupying the two-bedroom Arcon temporary bungalows
on the Rayners Lane Estate. In addition, some of the 217 applicants on
the New Towns list will, in due course, qualify by length of residence,
to be considered for inclusion on the general waiting list.
The sub-committee felt that, in the circumstances, the allotting of
houses must be kept on as flexible a basis as possible to meet the various
needs within the Council's policy, and it should refrain from making the
usual provisional allocation of new dwellings to the various classes.
The Housing Committee, at their meeting on the 19th February,
decided "that as a matter of policy and by way of departure from existing
practice, the Council do not stipulate in advance any fixed provisional
allocation of new council dwellings to meet particular needs during 1959
60 other than to preserve the present allocation of one-tenth of all such
dwellings to tuberculous cases as in previous years, and that it be left to
the Housing Committee to let all dwellings in accordance with the Council s
current housing policy, which has regard to certain priorities and to
applicant's individual housing needs or hardship."