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will be reported year by year, in the main, these will represent the normal
wastage arising from properties ageing and passing beyond the stage
when modernisation is an economical proposition.
Improvement Grants.
The Housing Act, 1949 enabled Local Authorities to give financial
assistance to owners who were prepared subject to certain conditions to
provide additional accommodation by the conversion of houses or other
buildings into flats and by the same Act, Local Authorities were empowered
to make grants towards the improvement of existing dwellings. The response
was disappointing. Subsequent legislation introduced the "Standard
Grant" whereby owners of properties which were without a fixed bath or
shower, a wash hand basin, a hot water supply, an internal water closet or
satisfactory facilities for storing food, could obtain an amount not
exceeding £155 towards the provision of these amenities.
Twenty-five applications for the standard grant were received during
the year and 16 were approved. Of these, 13 were in respect of owneroccupied
properties. Over the same period 16 enquiries were received
about obtaining a discretionary grant and of these 14 were approved.
Overcrowding.
During the year the number of known cases of families living in
overcrowded accommodation in the Borough continued to fall. On the
1st January 1962 there were 31 recorded cases and during the year 10
new cases were found and added to the register. Over the same period 16
cases of overcrowding were abated, 7 of the families concerned being
rehoused in council-owned accommodation. The number of cases outstanding
on the 31st December was 25.
In 14 of these the overcrowding was the result of children passing
into a higher age group and in 7 from children marrying and continuing
to live with their parents. In the remaining cases the accommodation was
let so as to be overcrowded.
Overcrowding was first defined by the Housing Act 1935, and the
following chart illustrates the number of known cases in the district on
the 1st January in each year since 1936. During the intervening period of
twenty-seven years 2,440 cases of overcrowding have been abated.