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(i) That miscellaneous properties owned by the Council "be used
as far as practicable to meet the general needs of families
on the Council's housing waiting list.
(j) That each application for housing by the Council be examined
to see if the need can be met in some other way than by
letting Council accommodation,,
Ways of implementing these decisions are now being
considered by appropriate Committees and Departments following
discussion of the general policy proposed with the Tenants'
Consultative Committee.
Whatever the final form of the Council's on-going
housing programme, there is no doubt that for successful
implementation and to accord with the views of the Seebohm Committee
and the Housing Management Sub-Committee of the Central Housing
Advisory Committee, the closely co-ordinated work from which the
final policy report emerged must continue., Housing needs in the
Borough must be dealt with as a single entity which embraces
the planning and provision of new Council-owned and privately-owned
property; maintenance of existing housing stock in a satisfactory
state of repair and by the provision of basic amenities in both
the public and private sectors; recognition of the exceptional
social problems of a minority of housing applicants which cannot
be alleviated solely by the provision of a Council house; the
relief of an increasing number of elderly persons who under-occupy
over-large accommodation; the provision of adequate supporting
services for the sick, the handicapped and elderly coincidental
with housing development; and on the broader canvas, recognition
of the needs of families beyond the single provision of somewhere
to live, they also need somewhere to work, to achieve satisfying
leisure activities, somewhere to serve and all at a price they
can afford to pay.
I am increasingly concerned by the number of families
who, particularly at the beginning of married life, become
committed to rents or mortgage payments which are really beyond their
financial resources or potential, a situation which not infrequently
leads them towards social and mental ill-health, still further
loss of earning capacity and progress towards eventual
homelessnesso Not all reach this final destination but these
families really need to be able to rent or purchase houses or flats
which provide the basic requirements for family living, the price
of which they can afford, leaving the desirable though not essential
costly refinements to be added when they can afford to pay for them.
I pass this financial and architectural conundrum on to those
better qualified to solve it than I.
Infectious Disease
Prevention and control of infectious disease while
calling for little exceptional report in these pages, continues to
be an important function of Health Services,, Reference is made
in the body of the report to the introduction of vaccination
against measles and the customary statistics relating to notification,
vaccination and immunisation generally are to be found. It is a
matter of congratulation to Sutton's parents that the percentage
of children immunised against diphtheria, whooping cough and
poliomyelitis in 1969 as determined by the Department of Health and
Social Security has risen to 95% of children born in 1967, a figure
as high as for any area in the country. I hope it will be possible
to record a similar high uptake for measles vaccination in my
next report.
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