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73
HOUSING.
THE OVERCROWDING SURVEY.
The Housing Act, 1935, in addition to setting up a new standard for
measuring overcrowding, imposes upon every local authority the duty
of carrying out an inspection of their district in order to ascertain what
dwelling houses are overcrowded and to prepare and submit to the Minister
a report showing the number of new houses required to abate the overcrowding
in their district, and, unless they are satisfied that the required
number of new houses will be otherwise provided, to prepare and submit
to the Minister proposals for the provision thereof.
The Overcrowding Standard.
The overcrowding standard consists of two parts. Section 2 (1) (a)
provides that there must be sufficient sleeping accommodation to secure
proper sex separation. Section 2 (1) (b) is a standard of capacity, and in
conjunction with Schedule I, fixes in relation to the accommodation in
any particular house the maximum number of persons, irrespective of
sex, who may be permitted to sleep in that house at one time.
The First Schedule contains the following two tables:—
Table I.
Where a house consists of:—
The permitted
number of persons is:—
(a)
One room
2
(b)
Two rooms
3
(c)
Three rooms
5
(d)
Four rooms
7*
(e)
Five rooms
10
(with an additional 2 in respect
of each room in excess of five)
(In using this Table, a room of less than 50 sq. ft. is not counted as
a room.)
Table II.
Where a room in a house
has a floor area of:—
The permitted
number of persons is:—
(a)
110 sq. ft. or more
2
(b)
90 sq. ft. or more, but less than 110
1½
(c)
70 sq. ft. or more, but less than 90
1
(d)
50 sq. ft. or more, but less than 70
½
(e)
Under 50 sq. ft.
Nil.