View report page

1ll
Efforts are being made to find a suitable person willing to
shoot pigeons so that in places where stupifying bait is
unusable this method can be used.
Housing
I mentioned in my last report that some difficulties had
been experienced in obtaining re-housing of occupants of
houses within Clearance Areas and in fact a number of
Clearance Areas were deferred for 18 months at the request of
the Housing Committee.
This action has tended to place a blight upon the activities
of my department in putting forward Clearance Areas, and
individual unfit houses. The Borough is fortunate in not having
large areas of sub-standard houses which are ripe for clearance,
and the pause has been fully occupied by going through in some
detail the existing Slum Clearance Programme.
It became clear that in a Borough such as this where bad
arrangement is not a major factor in determining unfitness that
"slum clearance programmes" are not a feasible proposition.
They do, in fact, cause considerable harm when quoted by
persons without knowledge of the properties concerned and, of
course, tend to render a house sterile.
The advent of the Rent Acts together with the better standard
of wages has meant that many people have bought their
own houses — usually as sitting tenants. Such owners are
young and enthusiastic "Do-it-yourselfers* and terraces of
houses which had been earmarked for future slum clearance
have been found, on inspection, to contain many houses which
have been transformed by knocking down walls to enlarge rooms,
curing dampness, remedying defects, painting and re-decorating,
and even in several cases by fitting central heating.
Such houses, which were deemed incapable of repair at
reasonable cost, have been made fit for the price of the
materials only.
This poses a serious problem for the Local Authority when
deciding slum clearance areas — if every house has been made
fit the problem is resolved, but if a minority of the houses have
been so repaired, the declaration of a Clearance Area is bound
to cause large scale objections.
As a result of inspections carried out during the year, 64
properties have been removed from the Slum Clearance Programme
and the investigation is continuing. Two Closing
Orders on basement flats were determined as s result of works
being carried out to render the flats fit for habitation.