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APPENDIX D
Abridged Report on the Overcrowding Survey.
To the Chairman and Members of the Public Health Committee.
REPORT ON OVERCROWDING SURVEY.
The results of the survey of housing conditions, in so far as they affect this Committee,
made under Section I of the Housing Act 1935 are now submitted.
The major part of the survey took place in December 1935 and this report is based on
the conditions then found. It also however includes certain modifications made necessary by
alterations found in the detailed survey of individual houses which has been taking place
continuously since that date. The Committee will realise that in a rapidly growing district such
as this, with its near proximity to London, there is little stability in housing conditions and already
some of the houses found overcrowded in December are not now overcrowded owing to the tenants
having moved elsewhere.
The details of individual overcrowded houses in the possession of the Department will
not necessarily hold good therefore until new houses are built to relieve the overcrowding; and
between now and the "appointed day" (when overcrowding under certain conditions becomes
a statutory offence) it is probable that certain of the overcrowded houses will cease to be
overcrowded while other houses will become overcrowded. The appointed day has yet to be
fixed by the Minister.
The results submitted however give a true indication of the conditions existing at the
beginning of this year and are a true guide, in fact the only guide, to the number of houses it
will be necessary to build to provide accommodation for tenants to be displaced from overcrowded
houses. They also give full information as to the general sizes of families, the number of rooms
occupied, the total population, etc. They also give, separately, the conditions with regard to
dwelling houses which are the property of the Council.
Before commenting on the detailed data it may be helpful to summarise the position :
1. The total population was found to be approximately 49,000. Of this population about 2,800
were resident in Hanwell Mental Hospital and should therefore be deducted in the
consideration of housing matters. This leaves an effective population of just over 46,000.
2. 1,166 individuals were found to be living in overcrowded dwellings. This is equivalent to
2.5 per cent. of the population.
3. About 12,500 dwellings were found to be occupied at the time of the survey.
4. Of these 159 were found to be overcrowded. This is equivalent to 1.27 per cent. of the total
number.
5. About 150 houses were found to be on the borderline with regard to overcrowding—due, for
example, either to a child nearing the age of 10 (when it counts as a unit instead of half a
unit) or to a possible birth occurring in the family which, twelve months later, will count
as a half unit. These families will be reviewed from time to time to see if they become
overcrowded.
6. 92 houses (apart from recently completed houses and houses connected with shops) were
found to be unoccupied at the time of the survey.
Document A
This summarises the whole of the housing conditions in the district and it should be
accepted as the "Form C" which has to be forwarded to the Minister. In the document,
"Persons" are calculated at the rate of one for each individual over 10 years of age and
half for each individual under 10 years of age. Infants under the age of 1 are excluded.
"Permitted number" is the maximum number of persons (not necessarily individuals) who
are allowed to occupy a dwelling without it becoming overcrowded as defined by the Act of 1935.
This, as the Committee knows, is the lesser of two figures arrived at by
(a) a calculation on the number of habitable rooms, and
(b) a calculation based on the measurements of the rooms.
It is obvious that it would take many months with a staff working full time on this problem
if all the rooms in the district were to be measured. The figures in Document A are therefore
based mostly on the number of habitable rooms and partly on the measurements of these rooms
This is why the figures appear to be aggregated especially under columns headed 4, 6, 8, and 9½.
Nearly 3,000 houses have however already been measured and this is indicated to some extent
in the "spreading" of the figures. The houses finally measured include all the overcrowded
houses and all those which are nearly overcrowded. In addition all the Council houses have
been measured either directly, or by the plans where time has so far prevented direct measurements.
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