[Report 1951] / Medical Officer of Health, Andover Borough.

  • Andover (England). Borough Council.
Date:
1951
Catalogue details

Licence: Attribution 4.0 International (CC BY 4.0)

Credit: [Report 1951] / Medical Officer of Health, Andover Borough. Source: Wellcome Collection.

    5/50 (page 3)
    Housing No excuse is needed for including some words on Housing. The Housing problem is still the most serious matter affecting the health of the community and as far as can be seen there is e/ery prospect that this situation will continue indefinitely. 172,000 houses were built in England and Wales in 195^ which is exactly the same number as in 1950. I repeat once more that this is exactly half the figure for 1938 (344,000) and that it is less than the number required for replacements (182,000)^ As a result the lists of prospective tenants for Council houses continue steadily to increase. There is no fair way of allocating houses when the number of houses available is less than the number of people who need them. It is impossible to estimate in numerical terms the relative severity of the housing positions of the different applicants and a points scheme however carefully prepared, cannot do more than bring forward the names of those who should be considered next. It is semetimes said that those who have no place of their own should at all times be considered before those who do have a home however unsatisfactory, but this view can perhaps be carried too far. It is seldom satisfactory for a young couple to live with in-laws, but a sub-let where the geography of the house is reasonably good may be a great deal better than ex-Services huts and houses which come under the category of fit for condemnation only. There are at present in occupation in this Municipal Borough 11 ex-Services huts and 13 houses which are the subject of a prewar clearance order or of a prewar undertaking not to use for human habitation, and are occupied under licence, or which are the subject of a post-war demolition order or of a. post-war undertaking not to use for hum,an habitation. It is now more than six years since the end of the war and these huts are no longer fit to live in. At the same time the unfit houses are deteriorating and the question anises as to how much longer people can be expected to live in them even if they do not actually become dangerous or fall down. My own view is that it is becoming necessary to rehouse the tenants of both huts and houses. The possibility of setting a definite limit to the date at which all these tenants should be rehoused, and of rehousing the appropriate proportion each year, might be considered. This would perhaps be too inelastic, but it wou]d at least provide some sort of a guide as to how many to rehouse each year. At the same time there is no overall picture of the housing position in the town such as exists for Rural Districts in the Hobhouse Survey. Not only are there many houses which should be demolished, but there are also many which are incapable of repair at reasonable fe*$£pense but should be reconditioned under the Housing Act 1949 either by the owner or by the Council after acquisition. When the list of houses which should be demolished was completed the Council could then decide in the same way as already described how long should be taken to deal with the problem and as a result how many tenants should be rehoused each year. The acquisition and improvement of houses would provide the Council with accommodation for tenants whom they did not wish to put in a new Council house,and for tenants who could not pay the rent of a new Council house. It would also help to prevent the loss of such houses of architectural merit as exist in the town, and Andover is not over- generously provided with these.