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full rateable assessment restored, owners applied for certificates
of fitness under the provisions of the Landlord and Tenant
(War Damage) (Amendment) Act, 1941, in order to claim full
rentals. Most of these applications involved several visits and
necessitated considerable correspondence before the certificates
could be granted.
In addition to these factors, the housing problem became
more insistent. Members of the armed forces were returning
to civilian life and newly-married couples, unable to find
separate accommodation, went to live with their parents or
other relations, thus creating overcrowding and its accompanying
features, and giving rise to further complaints and
more work for the Department.
Demolition and clearance of war-damaged property continued
during the year and, in accordance with the practice of
the Department, the disused drains were sealed off as the
demolitions and clearances made the work possible; 218
premises were dealt with during the year in this respect.
The conditions of bombed sites in the district was a source
of anxiety both as regards nuisances caused by the deposit of
domestic and other refuse thereon, and in respect of potential
rat infestation arising from the sites. Offensive refuse was
cleared from the sites when conditions made it obvious that
removal was an urgent matter, but during the time that the
normal collection of house refuse within the borough was held
up it was not possible to cope with the demands. Rat infestations
on the sites were dealt with as they came to light and
no secondary infestations arose as a result of any neglect of
this matter.
The aggregation of work involved in the above matters
produced an unprecedented burden on the Department at a
time when, unfortunately, it was not possible to bring the
staff of sanitary inspectors up to full pre-war complement."
The position of the Public Health Department in Hackney
became a far from happy one, yet although inundated by complaints
of sanitary defects, hemmed in by restrictions and quotas, and
experiencing a general sense of frustration, the department continued
doing everything possible to ameliorate the condition of the housing
accommodation in the borough.
The arrangements under which building licences were issued
often caused confusion between the Public Health Department,
the Licensing Department, owners, and builders, and it was not
until the close of 1947 that the arrangements suggested by the
Ministry of Health in Circular 138/46 that a licence should accompany
a statutory notice was approved in Hackney.