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44
In the same period the County Council has erected 5,333 units of living
accommodation in the Borough as well as 414 units of temporary accommodation.
During the year that authority completed 334 units, and a further 247 were
under construction on December 31st.
HOUSING APPLICATIONS. New applications for housing accommodation totalled
1,522, and at the end of the year there were remaining on the Borough Council's
Housing Department's register 6,115 applicants. Including transfers to bther
accommodation and mutual exchanges between tenants, a total of 641 families on
the Borough Council's housing register were rehoused during the year. In the
same period 751 families were rehoused by the London County Council.
HOUSING REPAIRS AND RENTS ACT, 1954
SECTIONS 26 AND 27 (Certificates of disrepair)
(a) Applications for certificates of disrepair
In the last four months of the year 200 applications for certificates of
disrepair were received, Five of the applications related to "old" control
premises to which the provisions of Section 26 of the Housing Repairs and Rents
Act were applied by Section 27 of that Act, i.e. the tenants were paying the
increased rent permitted by the Rent Restrictions Acts, but notices of increase
of rent had not been served under the new Act. In all five cases certificates
of disrepair were granted. With regard to the remaining 195 applications, in
126 instances certificates of disrepair were granted; three applications were
refused because the condition of the premises did not justify the issue of a
certificate, and in five instances the tenants withdrew their applications for
various reasons. In one instance the applicant removed from the premises
before the inspection was made, Sixty applications were outstanding at the
end of the year.
(b) Applications for revocation of certificates of disrepair
Two of the five applications for revocation of certificates of disrepair
were granted and three were refused. Of the three applications refused, two
related to certificates that the house was not in a reasonable state of repair
which had been granted under the Rent Restrictions Acts. In neither case had
all the defects enumerated in the certificate been remedied, and upon inspection
it was found that additional repairs were necessary to make the houses
satisfy both of the conditions justifying an increase of rent. The owners
were informed accordingly.
HOUSING ACT, 1949
This Act, which came into operation on the 30th July, 1949, inter alia
removed the references to "the working classes" from certain provisions of the
Housing Act, 1936, and enables action to be taken under Section 9 (repair),
Section 11 (demolition), and Section 12 (closing), in respect of all houses.
It also empowers the local authority to provide housing accommodation for persons
of all classes.
SECTION 4 (Power of local authorities to make advances for purpose of increasing
housing accommodation) gives a local authority permissive powers to make
advances to persons for the purpose of:-
(a) acquiring houses;
(b) constructing houses;
(c) converting into houses buildings which have been acquired by those
persons or acquiring buildings and converting them into houses; or
(d) altering, enlarging, repairing or improving houses whether the houses
or buildings are within or without the district cf the authority or
council.