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(18) HOUSING.
During the year under review, 117 houses were built
by private enterprise.
Although there would not appear to be a lack of houses
in the District for those people who are in a position to
purchase them, nevertheless the problem of the poorer
classes of the community in finding houses at an economic
rent is still with us. Bound up so vitally as it is with
income and the importance of maintaining nutrition, the
availability—or otherwise, of houses at an economic rent
must have a very definite bearing upon health. Recent
investigations in this country have shown that some
families who have been moved from slum areas to Council
houses have suffered impaired health. This is due to the
fact that the rent demanded for their new homes leaves
too little for adequate food. In this connection, the
policy of the Teddington Council in erecting maisonettes
which are let at a weekly rent of 8/4 to 8/7, exclusive of
rates, is to be commended.
Important legislation was enacted during the year in
the form of the Housing Act, 1935. One of the main
provisions of the Act was to make further and better
provision for the abatement and prevention of overcrowding.
The Act sets up a standard by which overcrowding
is to be judged and, with safeguards for special cases,
makes it a punishable offence to infringe that standard.
In order to ascertain the extent of overcrowding, each
Local Authority was required to make a survey of their
area and, as regards this District, at the end of the year
arrangements were being made for this work to be commenced.
This subject will be dealt with in my next report.
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