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38
SECTION D.
HOUSING.
General Observations as to Housing Conditions, etc.
The periodical inspection of houses of the artizan type,
with a view to remedying insanitary and other conditions likely
to be injurious to the health and wellbeing of the people, has
rightly always been an important branch of the work in the
Public Health Department.
Many Acts of Parliament dealing with this matter have
from time to time been passed, but the Housing Act, 1930,
greatly advanced legislation dealing with this all-important
subject. Under this Act greater powers were given to local
authorities for dealing with bad housing conditions, as well as
calling upon them to deal energetically with the clearing away
of what may be termed "slum areas."
This Authority, in common with all others, was called upon
to submit to the Ministry of Health a scheme of " slum
clearance " which was to be inaugurated and carried through
in a period of five years.
Such a scheme was submitted and the work of slum
clearance put in hand. Although the Council had large schemes
in hand for the erection of houses suitable for the working
classes, these houses were being erected under the Housing Act,
1924, for the accommodation of the numerous applicants living
under overcrowded conditions within the Borough, and the
Council found very considerable difficulty in obtaining additional
sites on which to erect houses for people ultimately to be rehoused
as a result of slum clearance work.
By the middle of 1933 the original scheme of slum
clearance had so far advanced that 59 houses had actually been
or were being dealt with as Clearance Areas, while 17 other
houses had been demolished or closed by owners in anticipation
of action by the Council under the Act, leaving 36 houses of
this scheme awaiting for action to be taken.
The Government, however, now called upon the Council to
amend its original scheme, or rather to submit a further