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69
Housing.
The Housing problem became very acute during 1919,
and, as a result, very considerable preliminary activity was
shown by the Council in dealing with the situation. Many
causes are responsible for the present shortage of houses, but
the chief immediate cause is undoubtedly the almost
complete cessation of building during the war. The return
of large numbers of demobilised soldiers has accentuated the
difficulty of the situation, and there is no doubt that we are,
therefore, face to face with a most serious social and public
health problem.
The Council has been most active in endeavouring to
meet the position in regard to housing in the Borough, and
much preliminary investigation has been carried out, with a
view to disclosing the position of the housing situation as it
exists in Battersea to-day. House-to-house inspection during
the war had been seriously interrupted, and for part of the
time had practically ceased owing to the time of the Sanitary
Inspectorial Staff being taken up with other duties. It was
not an easy matter, therefore, to ascertain the actual situation
in regard to the Housing question in the Borough. There
was practically not a single empty house, and as house-tohouse
inspection progressed, congestion amounting in some
districts to overcrowding was apparent. (The extent to which
overcrowding exists at the present time in Battersea is for
various reasons difficult to estimate; house shortage, subletting,
induced by the high rent obtainable, etc., have contributed
to the evil.) Moreover, the sanitary condition of large
areas of house property in the lower wards of the Borough was
found to be seriously defective, owing to conditions occasioned
by the war, e.g, shortage of labour, high cost, scarcity
of building materials, etc.
Active steps had, therefore, to be taken to deal with the
Housing problem in its two-fold aspect of (a) insufficiency and
(b) unsuitability.
The powers of the Council for dealing with the Housing
problem were much strengthened by the Housing, Town Planning,
etc., Act, of 1919, which became law on the 31st of
July. The Act was passed to enable Local Sanitary Authorities
to deal with the housing question on broad and comprehensive
lines, (a) by the provision, where required, of new houses
suitable for the working classes, and (b) by a general raising