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29
a small part of the district had been systematically inspected
under the Act, and only a comparatively few houses had been
either rendered fit or closed and demolished. The then existing
staff of four inspectors did not permit of much more being done.
Your Medical Officer in his report for 1914, said " I believe it is
necessary to increase the number of houses inspected per annum
to about 200 houses, but I do not feel that it would be safe to
go beyond that number with the present staff without causing a
sacrifice of the efficiency with which the other work is carried
out." Since 1914, the staff has been greatly reduced (for a long
time consisting, I believe, of only one inspector) and nothing in
the way of systematic inspection has been possible. It is obvious,
therefore, that there are great arrears of work which need to be
over-taken, especially as for reasons arising out of the War, the
normal work of keeping houses in a proper state of repair has
not been carried out.
In the latter part of 1919, the Ministry of Health called for
a Survey of Housing Needs and among the information prepared
for this Survey by this Department were the following figures: —
No. of inhabited bouses which are not and cannot be
made fit for human habitation = 260 (estimated).
No. of persons inhabiting these houses = 1,300 (approximate).
No. of houses already subject to (a) Closing Orders, (b)
Demolition Orders=(a) 29, (b) 4.
No. of houses seriously defective but can be made
habitable = 1,250 (estimated).
The estimates in most cases may be taken as conservative,
as they are based on the houses actually listed. It is very
probably that many houses not on the list should be included,
but the full facts can only be ascertained by a complete survey
of the district.
Out of a total of 8,814 houses in the district, 4,376 were
described as working-class houses where the prevailing rents were
then from 3/6 to 10/- per week. It is not quite clear, however,
whether the term "working class" has been applied to houses