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4.1.3 Increasingly the District Inspector's time is taken up on the supervision of
drainage and sanitary work which arises from repair, improvement and new construction.
The major developments now occurring in Camden, and especially the commercial tower
blocks, present entirely new problems and techniques, and such supervision requires a
high standard of skill and application. It is to the credit of the Inspectors that these
new problems are being dealt with so smoothly and effectively; they clearly enjoy the
confidence of both architects and builders, who appreciate that the inspectors are
always prepared to advise on the form in which an application for byelaw permission
will be approved and thus avoid having sheaves of finalised and expensive plans
rejected and returned with schedules of objections.
4.1.4 Ten of the most experienced Inspectors are fully engaged on housing work,
which in Camden covers Council mortgages, improvement grants, loans to housing
associations, and rehabilitation areas as well as the statutory work of repair of individual
unfit houses and clearance areas.
4.1.5 A total of 563 dwellings were dealt with in connection with redevelopment and
clearance areas in 1968, compared with 560 in 1967. Over 1,100 dwellings have been
considered for demolition in two years - a fair indication of an active policy on housing
renewal, but one which gives me no particular satisfaction. Later in this report I make
my view on substandard Victorian tenement dwellings quite clear, and I am equally
emphatic that there are many houses in Camden, which, in fairness to those who live in
them, must go. But 1969 has seen a new Housing Act, and this should at last provide
both the powers and the incentive to enable us to save many houses and many streets
which are worth saving.
HOUSING
4.2.1 Council-assisted house purchase has again been bedevilled by lack of funds.
Compared with the 342 applications accepted for survey and report in 1967,302 were dealt
with in 1968. The Council can assist in the purchase only of a house which is fit for
occupation and which is reasonably occupied. The object of our inspection is to ensure
that the property is suitable for its proposed use, or to estimate the nature and the
costs of works required to render it so. Programmed re-visits to properties held on
Council mortagages numbered 977 in 1967 (the first year of the scheme) and 2,899 in
1968; these serve to check on reasonable maintenance and to prevent or remedy irregular
occupation.
4.2.2 In rehabilitation areas our object is to secure fair basic amenities and standards
of repair for each family in multi-occupied houses. Probably no other aspect of the
work of the Inspectorate requires more persistence and tact. A house-owner applying for
an improvement grant or a would-be owner seeking a Council mortgage is inclined to be
well disposed to the officer dealing with him; it can be explained to an owner served
with a Notice requiring extensive repairs that his investment should be preserved. He
may not like it, but he can understand it. But a landlord required to provide a sink, hot
water, and a bathroom, even though a shared one, to tenants he is convinced he is already
subsidising can feel very aggrieved. In fact, many such cases rank for improvement
grant and in any event the owner's costs in the matter are eventually recoverable by
way of increased rents. This is useful work, long overdue, and it must be continued at
least until such a time as higher standards of housing render it unnecessary.
4.2.3 Despite the difficulties, no less than 684 houses were dealt with during 1968,
of which 521 were found to be deficient in some way. We encourage informal action as
far as is reasonable, and only 28 formal notices were served but informal notices,
advice to owners and the encouragement of improvement grants resulted in 384 completed
scnedules of repair, 167 additional baths, 94 new water closets and 609 tenancies
provided with hot water. Many of the necessary visits were made by technical assistants,
whose valuable contribution is demonstrated by the results. It would certainly not have
been possible to concentrate the time of qualified inspectors on this one aspect of the
work.
4.2.4 The period under review has seen the Council's 1966/70 slum clearance
programme brought nearer to a successful conclusion. Representations for clearance
have been made in respect of tenement blocks considered in the nineteenth century to
be adequate dwellings for artisan families, but now necessarily regarded as obsolete.
Solidly framed and built, they rarely show basic structural defects. The problem is not
one of decay but of inadequacy. With sink and cooker in the living room or at best in a
tiny pantry (serving as the family kitchen), no bathroom, shared water closet, and dark
common staircases and passages, I regard most of these Victorian tenements as
anachronisms.
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