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HOUSING
The amount of slum clearance required in Southall has been very small so far because
the district is of comparatively recent growth. Eighty-three houses were given to be included
in the first provisional programme of slum clearance in 1955, and a further 72 in 1961.
Fifty-eight houses have been demolished or closed since the 1st January, 1956. Numbers
3 and 4, Park View Road, although not demolished, were not used for human habitation,
and Numbers 1-14, Buckingham Terrace and 1-3, Clear View Cottages, and 82 and 90,
High Street, although represesented in 1962, were still not dealt with by the end of 1963
because of the requirement for rehousing of the occupants. During the year, Closing
Orders were made on Brookside House, Hayes Bridge; 43, Featherstone Road; 53,
Hammond Road, and 65, Hammond Road, the latter three are not on the slum clearance
programme. No slum properties were demolished during the year.
Improvement Grants (Housing Act, 1949, as amended bv the Housing (Financial Provisions)
Act, 1958)
Thirty-one applications were approved for grant for property improvement.
In all, up to the end of 1963, 177 of these Improvement Grants have been approved.
Certificates of Disrepair (Rent Act, 1957)
During the year, 10 applications were received and approved. No certificates of
revocation of disrepair certificates were approved.
Overcrowding
More visits were required in 1963 to be paid for estimation of overcrowding and sixteen
cases of new overcrowding were confirmed. Eleven 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 43 dwellings, which is an increase of five on last year's figure. For
further details see Table XIII, page 68.
Re-Housing of Applicants for Council Dwellings
Council Housing within the Borough
The number of families obtaining Council accommodation for the first time in 1963
was 59. Nine old persons were rehoused from the waiting list and fifteen were transferred
from larger Council properties, to smaller accommodation. One one-bedroom flat and seven
bed-sittingroom flats in Hill House, Allenby Road, were completed and occupied during the
year.
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 in one of the
New Towns were subsequently accepted as Council nominees; the total number of families
who have moved to New or Expanded Towns since that date is a further 321, twenty-five
families having been rehoused in this way during 1963.
Modernisation of Council Houses
There were 426 houses, built between 1930 and 1936, which still had old ranges with hot
water supply, except where the tenants themselves installed modern fireplaces. A total of
358 have now been modernised up to the 31st December, 1963.
Bathrooms were provided and new grates and electrical power points were installed in
eleven old persons' bungalows in Saxon Gardens.
Bathrooms, modern grates and electrical power points were provided in four purchased
houses; three in Beaconsfield Road and one in Woodlands Road.
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