View report page

The sections mentioned above are those which need immediate
attention. Other sections in the Act directly affecting my Department,
particularly Section 13 and those following—dealing with
re-development areas—and also Section 20, will be doubtless the
subject of consideration at a later and more appropriate time.
The amendments relating to clearance areas (contained in
Sections 62 to 67 of the Act) will come up for consideration
automatically when any particular clearance area becomes the
subject of an enquiry by the Minister of Health.
Properly to carry out the above-mentioned work additional
staff is essential. At present the number of Sanitary Inspectors
employed is sixteen, excluding the Chief Sanitary Inspector. These
members of my staff are allocated to the different Wards of the
Borough. Their time is fully occupied in dealing with the routine
work of inspection and reporting upon defective and infected
houses and in preparing schedules under the various Housing
Acts. Some of the work entailed by the Housing Act, 1935, will
dovetail into their daily routine, but much additional work is
inevitable until the whole of the houses of the Borough (some
50,000) have been inspected. The inspection must reveal two
main results :—
(1) The number of people occupying every dwelling-house.
("Dwelling-house means any premises used as a separate
dwelling by members of the working classes or of a type
suitable for such use." Section 12.)
(2) The description and sizes of rooms in each dwelling-house.
I append to this Memorandum a specimen form (Form B.),
setting out the enquiries that are necessary to be made, and which
indicates in no uncertain manner the amount of detail necessary
to be obtained before any major action can be taken under this
Act.
I suggest that:—
(1) Enumerators be appointed to visit every house and to
obtain all the information needed to fill Columns 1 to 8 of
Form B. The number to be appointed will of course vary in relation
to the length of time proposed to be spent on the survey. I
am of opinion that if the survey is to be completed expeditiously,
each Ward should have an enumerator working under the surveillance
of the district inspector for that Ward. Those attached to
the Wards where the survey would be completed quickly could
be transferred on completion of the survey of that Ward to the
more densely populated districts.
88