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HOUSING
Of the 83 houses recommended for slum clearance in the provisional programme for
the years 1955 to 1960, 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, Killamey Cottages
Numbers 5 to 18, Featherstone Terrace
Numbers 2 to 4 and 18 to 28, Spencer Street Demolished 55
Numbers 6 to 16, Spencer Street
Numbers 9 to 15, The Crescent
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.
In addition, two individual houses, 17 and 19, Grosvenor Road, not on the programme
but found to be unsafe, were demolished and the tenants rehoused.
Improvement Grants (Housing Act, 1949, as amended by the Housing (Financial Provisions)
Act, 1958)
Forty.eight applications were received and forty.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 continued to rise from
3 in 1958, applied for and approved, to 30 in 1959, applied for with 28 approved, and
now the 1960 figure of 48 all approved.
Certificates of Disrepair (Rent Act, 1957)
During the year 17 applications were received, 17 proposals to issue Certificates were
approved. Five certificates of revocation of the disrepair certificate were approved,
and one rejected.
Overcrowding
Fewer visits were required in 1960 to be paid for estimation of overcrowding, but
thirty.two cases of new overcrowding were confirmed in 1960, seven more than in 1959.
Twenty cases of overcrowding were relieved during the year. The number remaining
on the Department's register of overcrowding at the end of the year was 60 dwellings,
which is an increase of twelve on last year's figure. For further detail see Table XIII,
page 62.
Rehousing of Applicants for Council Dwellings
Council Housing within the Borough
The number of families obtaining Council accommodation for the first time in 1960
was 56. Thirteen old age pensioners 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 Towns.) In addition 50 families who had found their own accommodation
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