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27
Fortunately, the population of the borough had been considerably
reduced from the pre-war level by evacuation and the
call-up for the Armed Forces so that the demand for accommodation,
great as it was, was less than might otherwise have been the case.
Nevertheless, the diminution of dwelling accommodation was not
the only difficulty to be overcome; there were the shortages of
building labour and materials which, combined with other wartime
circumstances, resulted in a general deterioration of those
houses which escaped damage; reduction in the effective strength
of the district inspectorial staff caused by the necessity for seconding
some inspectors to civil defence duties, whilst houses had to be
inspected as to their suitability for requisitioning. Bomb sites
and derelict buildings became the dumping grounds for refuse and
breeding grounds for rats; damaged and disused drains had to be
sealed off from the sewers, whilst the static water tanks constructed
for emergency use for fire fighting purposes in the event of damage
to water mains also gave rise to a considerable number of complaints.
So far as circumstances permitted, the situation was kept under
control, and then in 1944, first pilotless aircraft and then longrange
rockets were directed against London, and the extensive
damage caused by these missiles added further to the difficulties of
the already over-burdened department. The inspectors, however,
renewed their efforts to deal with the rapidly deteriorating condition
of housing in the borough, and in my Annual Report for that year
I stated:—
"The work of the sanitary inspectors continued under
ever-increasing difficulty, and much of their time was taken
up in dealing with complaints by tenants of war-damaged
properties. The greatest possible care has been taken to restrict
the service of notices so as to call only for the repair of defects
which were prejudicial to health and thus avoid adding to the
acute labour difficulty in the building trades. Twenty-three
summonses were issued against the owners of 22 houses in the
borough in order to secure compliance with statutory notices,
and further proceedings were necessary in three cases where
owners had failed to comply with magistrates' orders to abate
nuisances.''
The end of the war brought no relief to the department; in fact
conditions became even more difficult, as will be seen from the
following attempt to describe them in my Annual Report for
1946
"I feel it is necessary briefly to mention and so place on
record the heavy increase of work that has been carried out
by that section of the staff. This increase has, of course, caused
additional work for the clerical staff, but it is mainly on the
sanitary inspectors that the work has fallen.