[Report 1935] / Medical Officer of Health, Edinburgh City.

  • Edinburgh (Scotland). City Council.
Date:
1935
Catalogue details

Licence: Attribution 4.0 International (CC BY 4.0)

Credit: [Report 1935] / Medical Officer of Health, Edinburgh City. Source: Wellcome Collection.

    6/248
    Infantile Mortality.—Four hundred and ninety children died under one year, giving an infantile mortality rate of 70 per 1,000 registered live births. The deaths are 41 more than in the previous year and the rate is 8 more. While this rate is a great improvement on what obtained a comparatively few years ago, there is room for much further progress. Housing.—During the year, further progress was made with the programme of Slum Clearance, and since 1923, the Local Authority has dealt with 3,716 insanitary houses affecting a population of 18,936 persons. The year 1935 will be a memorable one in Public Health Administration. The passing of the Housing (Scotland) Act, 1935, brought us much nearer to our ideal, namely, that every member of the community be properly housed. In this Act a new standard is laid down for overcrowding, namely, that (a) a one-apartment house can only legally accommodate two persons ; (b) two-apartment house—three persons ; (c) three-apartment house—five persons ; (d) four-apartment house—7j persons ; (e) five rooms or more—ten persons, with an additional two in respect of each room in excess of five. Over and above these standards, a house is deemed to be overcrowded if persons of the opposite sex who are not living together as husband and wife are com- pelled to sleep in the same room. Rooms with a floor area of less than 50 square feet are not counted for the purposes of the above standard, and rooms less than 110 square feet, but more than 50 square feet are subject to a reduction in the number of units or persons who may legally occupy them. Children under ten are reckoned as one- half of a unit, and children under one year are not taken into account. This new standard is a big advance on the old standard, namely, the standard of 400 cubic feet per person, which has always been regarded as unsuitable in assessing the degree of overcrowding in dwelling houses. Another part of the 1935 Act deals with the problem of Slum Clearance from a new angle, namely, the treatment of re-development areas, and, although the adminis- tration of the provisions may be rather complicated, one feels that it is a step in the right direction. It is not sufficient to clear out insanitary houses or tenements and leave the sites vacant, and, to deal with the problem satisfactorily, Slum Clearance should be closely linked with Town Planning, and in these new provisions, such a method of dealing with insanitary areas is possible. The Overcrowding Survey required under the 1935 Act has now been completed. All houses of a rental of £45 and under were visited by members of the City Assessor’s staff who collected information on cards prepared by this Department. The cards were returned to the Sanitary Department and the information thereon collated and a report prepared. 1 his report shows that altogether, 100,642 houses were surveyed, including 1,034 which were vacant at the time of the Survey, and it was found that 103,083 families were residing therein. Applying the standard defined in the Act, it was found that 19,746 houses or I9'82 per cent, were overcrowded, and that 20,244 families or 19 64 per cent, were living in overcrowded conditions. Reference is made to this Survey in the Sanitary Inspector’s Report, which shows that, after making certain deductions, it would appear that somewhere in the region of 7,000 new houses are required to meet the immediate needs of the City in order to obtain the abatement of overcrowding.