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occupier guilty of an offence; but because of the shortage of housing
accommodation, the Public Health Department finds it impracticable
to enforce the overcrowding provisions of the Housing
Act in such cases. Indeed, under present conditions the hardship
resulting from the enforcement of these provisions would be so
great that the department would be reluctant to take proceedings
except in cases of flagrant contravention of the Act or of
unreasonable refusal of suitable alternative accommodation.
Although overcrowding is less prevalent than in previous
years, the large number of dwellings in which two or more families
are living together, although the dwellings are not overcrowded
on the Housing Act standard, remains a pressing social evil, whilst
the adverse effect which living under such conditions has on the
mental and physical health of the persons concerned is a matter of
great anxiety to all medical officers of health. Cases of this type are
frequently brought to my notice but although I am well aware of
the distress which such conditions engender there is little I can do.
The only remedy, of course, is the provision of more permanent
houses, and it is to be hoped that in the near future economic
conditions will permit a considerable acceleration in the rate of
building and that it will be possible to provide adequate housing
accommodation for all families.
ABATEMENT OF OVERCROWDING AND APPLICATIONS
FOR RE-HOUSING—1951.
Details regarding overcrowding investigations carried out by
the Public Health Department staff in connection with Housing
applications, and the number of families re-housed on Hackney
Borough Council and London County Council Housing Estates,
are set out in statistical form in the following summary:—