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HOUSING
Of the 83 houses recommended for slum clearance in the provisional programme for
the years 1955 to i960, the majority are now either demolished or under sentence of demolition
as soon as all occupying families have been housed.
Properties already dealt with on the list submitted to the Ministry of
Health are :—
Numbers 1 and 2, Bells Cottages and 1 to 6, Pluckington Place
Numbers 1, 2, 3 and 4, Killarney Cottages
Numbers 5 to 18, Featherstone Terrace
Numbers 2 to 4 and 18 to 28, Spencer Street
Numbers 6 to 16, Spencer Street
Numbers 9 to 15, The Crescent Demolished 55
Dagmar Cottage Allowed to remain provided
no human habitation
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One cottage was brought up to suitable standard by the owner and is still inhabited.
An offer to modernise five of the houses in the schedule was made and accepted by the
Borough Council.
Improvement Grants (Housing Act, 1949, as amended by the Housing (Financial Provisions)
Act, 1958)
Thirty applications were received and twenty-eight were approved for grant for property
improvement.
The improvements in standards of housing resulting from the use of this type of grant
and from the repair conditions by which increased rents can be obtained under the Rent
Act, 1957, make a useful although not extensive advance in the attainment of good environmental
conditions for healthy living, and the figure rose greatly—only 3 in 1958 were
received; all were approved.
Certificates of Disrepair (Rent Act, 1957)
During the year 24 applications have been received, 23 proposals to issue Certificates
were approved. Two certificates were issued and 8 certificates cancelled. Cancellation and
issue are not necessarily related. Where Undertakings are given by landlord to carry out
the required repairs no certificate is issued.
Overcrowding
There was again an increase in the number of visits paid for estimation of overcrowding
to the Public Health Department. Twenty-five cases of new overcrowding were confirmed
in 1959. Forty cases of overcrowding were relieved during the year—this figure was 26 in
1958. The number remaining on the Department's register of overcrowding at the end of
the year was 48 dwellings. For further detail see Table XIII, page 62.
Rehousing of Applicants for Council Dwellings
Council Housing within the Borough
Total number of families obtaining Council accommodation for the first time in 1959
was 72. Three were from slum clearance areas, 22 from requisitioned properties, 26 from
other accommodation. Twenty-one were moved into old people's dwellings.
New Town Housing
The total number of families removing to New or Expanded Towns: 25 families nominated
under the Industrial Selection Scheme up to April, 1956, since when the Council
has had to pay subsidy for every family moving from this Borough to New or Expanded
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