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(5)
It was necessary to close four houses as unfit for habitation under the Housing
of the Working Classes Act, 1890, one of which has been improved by structural
alterations so as to comply with the requirements of the law.
Six cases of overcrowding have been found to exist in houses during the year,
and the nuisance caused to be abated.
In my report for the year 1901 I commented on the "demand for houses of a
somewhat lower rental than the majority of existing ones which generally range
from about 8s. per week and upwards," and of the danger this was to the community
from its tendency to cause overcrowding, as the occupier is frequently, through lack
of means, compelled to sub-let a portion of a house designed for the habitation of
one family only, to one or more additional families.
The tendency to overcrowding is not the only evil caused by this condition of
things, and, moreover, it is one over which we can exercise some control, but it
undoubtedly has in some cases a demoralising influence, and makes the word
"home," in its best sense, more or less of a parody to many a family, and especially
so to the wife.
To my mind this is the greatest sanitary problem with which at the present
time we have to deal, as with a rapidly growing residential district there must
naturally be an increased demand for gardeners, stablemen, labourers, and others,
and consequently of houses for their accommodation. The average wages of these
people are much under thirty shillings, and the payment of a rental of even eight
shillings per week out of this, having to maintain themselves and families on the
remainder, seems to be an unreasonable and serious proportion; houses about this
rental are few, not by any means always obtainable, and when found are in some
instances to my mind not inherently worth this amount from any standpoint except
the inexorable law of supply and demand.
Though many houses have been erected within recent years, they are mostly of
a class that command a rental of 10s. per week or more, and do not in any way assist
in solving the problem.
If the price of land and building are such as to make it unremunerative to the
private builder to put up houses to let at lower rates, I would suggest the erection of
small flats built in the form of semi-detached houses, and containing four separate
dwellings of three or four rooms, as very suitable for small families, and which I
think might be built on appropriate sites so as to let at from five or six shillings
per week.
Should private enterprise fail to come to the rescue by providing suitable
dwellings, it becomes a matter for the Sanitary Authority themselves to seriously
consider the necessity and desirability of erecting such property, and I am of the
opinion that this could be well and profitably done under the favourable terms of
re-payment of money borrowed for such purposes, allowed by the recently passed
Housing of the Working Classes Act, 1903. By the terms of this Act money
borrowed by a local authority for the erection of workmen's dwellings. as regards
the amount payable for the necessary freehold land, 80 years is allowed for re-payment,
and for that required for building purposes 60 years.
The Removal of House Refuse is undertaken by the Council, being taken to the
Sewage Farm, where it has been used for lightening the heavy clay soil of the farm,
or to a shoot off Balaam Lane. I am informed by the Sanitary Inspector that
5,585 loads of the refuse were thus removed during the year, as compared with
5,342 in 1902. The refuse deposit in Balaam J ane was the cause of a complaint
from the Thames Conservancy, owing to the heavy rains some drainage from this