View report page

The Housing Act, 1936.
The Housing Act, 1936, an act to consolidate the Housing Acts, 1925
to 1935, and certain other enactments relating to housing, came into force on
the 1st January, 1937.
Details of the work performed during the year under the old Housing
Acts are found under the section Sanitary Inspection of the District, under
the Statistics in this section (Housing), and in the report on the overcrowding
survey printed as Appendix D.
Eradication of Bed Bugs.
(1) Statistics for the year.
(a) number of Council houses (i) found to be infested 20
(ii) disinfested during the year * 16
(b) number of other houses (i) found to be infested 24
(ii) disinfested during the year. †24
* Two were disinfested by HCN.
† Ten were disinfested by HCN.
The above figures touch only the fringe of the problem of bug infestation.
The percentage of houses found on inspection to be infested varies greatly in
different parts of Southall. The Council at the beginning of 1937 had under
consideration proposals for a systematic attack on the problem insofar as
Council houses are concerned.
(2) Methods employed for houses.
For houses it is considered that fumigation with hydrocyanic acid gas
(HCN) is the only really effective method of dealing with serious degrees of
infestation. Even this must be afterwards supplemented by general cleanliness,
more especially in the matter of soap, water and fresh air, in order to prevent
re-infestation occurring. With slighter degrees of infestation, general cleanliness
alone may be sufficient, but in any cases which come to the knowledge of the
department some form of spray with insecticide is used. The difficulty about
the insecticides at present on the market is the probability that they do not
kill all the eggs of the bugs. These eggs are enclosed in a tough capsule and
it may be many months before they hatch out. If, therefore, a house is found
to be infested one summer and treated by insecticide the treatment is usually
sufficient to kill all live bugs. When the cooler weather begins, the eggs cannot
be hatched and may remain alive as eggs until the following May or June,
when the summer weather re-appears and they are hatched. This method,
therefore, tends frequently to give a sense of efficiency which it does not in
fact possess. HCN gas, on the other hand, if used in the ordinary concentration
50