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(2) Number of separate tenements or underground
rooms in respect of which Closing
Orders were determined, the tenement or room
having been rendered fit Nil
(b) Housing Act, 1936
Unfit Houses
No Demolition or Closing Orders were made during the
year.
General
The following is supplied by Mr. J. E. West, your Council's
Housing Manager:—
"The year ending in March, 1946, saw the beginning of
the great task of post-war reconstruction.
"It may be well to review here the total number of dwellings
lost during the war years, together with the numbers of
families recorded as needing accommodation, in order that the
immense task of rehousing can be fully appreciated.
"In all, 1,392 houses had been destroyed or scheduled for
demolition, whilst a further 2,720 houses were so badly
damaged as to be uninhabitable. Bearing these figures in mind,
together with the national and perhaps abnormal increase in
the number of families and the fact that there had been no
new house building for the whole of the war years, it is not
surprising that 7,401 persons were recorded at the 31st March,
1946, on the Housing Register, which was set up on the 1st
October, 1945. This figure provides an under-statement of the
true position, as numbers of persons still away on war service
and others had not, by the close of the year, registered for
accommodation and the weekly number of persons registering
is still far in excess of accommodation becoming available each
week.
"To meet this grave problem a number of schemes were
projected, the situation being so urgent that 1,200 temporary
houses were sited to provide a short term remedy, for at any
rate, a number of cases. Unfortunately, this figure had to be
reduced to the present figure of 530. Having in mind the
need for permanent houses, the long term policy was at the
same time put in hand resulting in work on the Countess Road
and Millfield Avenue sites being formulated. Twenty blocks
of flats providing 414 dwellings are already in course of construction
at the former site and 74 houses are in an advanced
stage on the latter site. A request has also been submitted