View report page

38
HOUSING.
The year 1935 was one of more than ordinary significance
in the progress of Housing.
Not only did it mark the half-way stage of the most resolute
campaign for the abolition of slums ever initiated, but it also put
upon the Statute Book one of the most important housing
measures that has ever been introduced, namely—a measure to
abate by direct action for the first time, the evil of overcrowding.
The 1935 Housing Act deals principally with overcrowding,
re-development and re-conditioning of working class dwellings.
As an administrative measure the Act is revolutionary as
compared with previous legislation, since under certain conditions
it makes overcrowding an offence punishable by fine in the case
of both the occupier and landlord, and provides effective
machinery for the enforcement of this provision of the Local
Authorities.
The Act requires the Council to cause an inspection of the
Borough to be made within a fixed period in order to ascertain
what dwelling houses are overcrowded according to the "defined
standard" and to submit a report to the Minister of Health
showing the result of the inspection and the number of new
houses required to abate overcrowding, and to prepare and submit
to the Minister proposals for providing such new houses
unless they would otherwise be provided.
The overcrowding standard is decidedly not an ideal standard
of housing, but the minimum only, which, in the view of Parliament,
is tolerable, while at the same time capable of immediate
or early enforcement.