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60
It will be noted that the houses analysed amount to 4.3% of the total working class
dwellings surveyed, that they actually contain a population reckoned as "equivalent units" of
5,518½, and that the "permitted number" applicable is no less than 11,177½ i.e. more than
double the existing number. If the kitchen/living rooms had been excluded in calculating the
permitted number "for these dwellings, the total permitted population in terms of" equivalent
units" would amount to 8,025½.
A calculation has been made of the "permitted number" for all the working class houses
in the Borough on the basis of the information revealed by the analysis of these 1,054 representative
houses. This amounts to no less than 259,840, as compared with an actual population
at the Census of 1931 of 140,639 "equivalent units." The exclusion of the kitchen/living
rooms in calculating the "permitted number" would have reduced this potential maximum
population of the working class houses of the Borough, to 186,557.
Most house owners have now been supplied with the "permitted number" for inclusion
in the rent books of their tenants, the "appointed day," after which fresh overcrowding becomes
an offence in the Borough, being 1st July, 1937. It has been an encouraging, if unusual,
experience to receive from them many grumbles and protests at what they regard as an unreasonably
high figure for the dwellings which they own. It has been pointed out to the Department
by owners on many occasions that tenants' knowledge of the maximum "permitted number"
may lead to undesireable sub-letting.
Consideration of these figures will show that the present overcrowding standards can only
be of a temporary nature. Low as they undoubtedly are they have already revealed the fact
that more than 1,700 families are overcrowded, and will need the provision of larger houses.
Even that provision will not be easy within the circumscribed area of the Borough.
This rather pessimistic review should perhaps conclude with a reminder that the re-housing
standards which the Council have to apply are better than the overcrowding standards, and
allow a maximum occupation of Council dwellings of 1.5 persons per room. The revealed
maximum "permitted number," flrom the 1,054 houses analysed, works out as 1.85 "equivalent
units" per room.