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Housing and Town Planning Act.—Prior to last year
there were very few houses in the district to which Sections 14
and 15 of the Housing and Town Planning Act, 1909, applied,
that is, which had been let at a rental below £16 per annum
since the commencement of the Act. The last Official Census,
however, showed the population of the borough to exceed
50,000, in which case the standard of rent is raised by the Act
to £26 per annum; consequently the number of houses or parts
of houses let at rentals below that figure probably amounts
to over four thousand. Of these it is impossible to say in how
many cases the contract to let has been made since the Act
came into operation, thereby bringing them within the provisions
of Sections 14 and 15.
Of the 973 houses which were house to house inspected
during the year, 347 were found to come below the rental mentioned
in Section 14.
The nature of the defects found in many houses was as
follows:—Excessive dampness of walls, due either to decayed
brickwork or the absence of any damp-proof course, or both;
defective floor timbers and flooring; absence of an impervious
material over the site; want of ventilation under the floors;
dilapidated condition of roofs, etc.
The remedial work necessary, i.e., the insertion of dampproof
courses, provision of cement concrete over the sites of the
houses and means of adequate ventilation under the floors, etc.,
is of such a nature as to necessitate almost daily re-inspection
while it is being carried out, otherwise portions may be
scamped or improperly done, and the benefit of the expenditure
incurred in great measure nullified.
In a number of the houses visited where the waste pipes to
the sink are of 2½in. stoneware, of considerable length, constructed
under the scullery floor and not trapped, the tenants
complained of the very bad smells noticed. I communicated
with the Agents of the properties, and also met and discussed
with them the advisability of trapping these waste pipes; this
to my mind being the only reliable remedy. In every case
they agreed to my suggestions, and after the work had been
executed the premises were again visited, and not in a single
instance had smells been noticed since the work had been done.
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