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district. Quite a large number of cases come to knowledge of persons living in
such conditions that I should be able to recommend them for preferential treatment
in the allocation of accommodation upon the London County Council's estates
if it were not for the fact that many of these are unable to avail themselves of
the opportunity because they and their children work in or near the Borough
and would not be able to afford travelling expenses from Becontree, Morden, etc.,
in addition to a higher rental.
(c) Example of special action taken in 1930 to deal with overcrowding.
The special action taken is by recommending the London County Council or
Borough Council to place accommodation at the disposal of the overcrowded families.
This has already been mentioned in dealing with the extent of overcrowding
occurring in the Borough. The following is an instance of overcrowding which
was dealt with by the Public Health Department during the year:—
Complaint was made by a woman that the rooms in her occupation were
overcrowded. The family consisted of the man, his wife and four children (boys,
aged 10 and 4 years, and girls, aged 11 and 7 years).
They occupied two basement rooms, the back room, which was quite unsuitable
for use as a bedroom, being used for living purposes, whilst the entire family
slept in the front room. The cubic capacity of this room was 1,200 feet, whilst
under the standard laid down in the By-laws relating to houses let in tenements
1,500 cubic feet were required for a sleeping apartment used by this number
of persons.
The mother stated that indecent behaviour had occurred between the two
eldest children owing to her inability to make separate sleeping arrangements.
Following upon the recommendation of the case to the Council's Housing Committee,
the family removed to a house on one of the Borough Council's housing
estates.
4.—Fitness of Houses.
(a) Difficulties found in action under the Public Health Acts or under Section 3
of the Housing Act, 1925.
Generally speaking, the powers granted to local sanitary authorities by the
Public Health Acts are sufficient to enable those authorities to secure the abatement
of nuisances, but the absence of a standard of fitness gives rise to a very real
difficulty in maintaining a good standard of habitability. In my Annual Report
for 1928 was reprinted a report to the Public Health Committee of the Counc.l
drawing attention to the practice of "botching" adopted by certain owners of
property in the Borough. When defects in houses, such as defective roofs, gutters,
etc., come to notice, the action prescribed in the Public Health Acts to secure their
abatement is taken, but this does not permit the sanitary inspectors to demand
that the weather-rotted roofs shall be re-slated, or the gutters taken down and
replaced by new ones. Owners of property generally are well-versed as to the
limits of the sanitary authorities' powers, and they carry out sufficient work to
prevent the rain entering through the roof or to remedy the dampness caused by
the defective guttering, but frequently conditions are just as bad before the next
Winter has arrived, further complaints arise and the tedious process of serving
notices has to recommence.
Undoubtedly, the repeated patching-up of property in this unsatisfactory
manner results in its steady deterioration and it seems to me that larger powers
to enforce a better standard of repairs are required, or penalties when really
inadequate work has obviously been carried out in order temporarily to comply
with a notice.