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housing conditions. The Sub-Committee has recently viewed
houses reported to them by the Medical Officer of Health as
being insanitary in various parts of the Borough, and will have
noted for themselves the unsatisfactory conditions prevailing
in many of the houses. It is unnecessary for me, therefore,
to enter into details, but it is, nevertheless, incumbent on me
as Medical Officer of Health, to bring to the urgent notice of
the Committee and the Council the evil effect of such insanitary
housing conditions upon the health and physical development
of the people who have to live in them.
The shortage of houses and the difficulty of re-housing
the dispossessed tenants is the stumbling block to effective
action for dealing immediately with insanitary areas and unhealthy
dwelling-houses. The provision of 50 or 100 new
working-class dwellings as a beginning is, therefore, in my
opinion, a sine qua non, and it is to be hoped that from among
the list of available building sites, sufficient suitable land
will be acquired to provide this measure of new housing
accommodation.
In concluding this report, I beg to submit the following
recommendations for consideration:—
1. That no action at present be taken in regard to
schemes under Part I. of the Housing Act, 1890, dealing
with large improvement schemes, the urgency of
the need of such schemes not being, in my opinion,
immediately indicated. Moreover, the difficulties at present
being experienced, e.g., house shortage, lack of
available building land in Battersea, etc., would appear
to preclude any action being undertaken in this direction.
2. (a) The immediate provision of 100 to 200
working-class dwellings under Part III. of the Housing
Act in connection with schemes under Part II., dealing
with small insanitary areas or unhealthy dwelling-
houses.
(b) Empty or derelict houses in the Borough to be
acquired and altered, repaired, or converted into tenements
or flats suitable for occupation by the working-classes.
(This has already been undertaken on behalf of the
Council by the Ministry.)
3. Action under Part II. of the Housing Act, 1890,
as amended by the Housing, Town Planning, etc., Act,
1909, dealing with the condemnation and demolition of
houses individually and in small groups, that are unfit
for habitation.