[Report 1953] / Medical Officer of Health, Colchester Borough.

  • Colchester (England). Borough Council.
Date:
1953
Catalogue details

Licence: Attribution 4.0 International (CC BY 4.0)

Credit: [Report 1953] / Medical Officer of Health, Colchester Borough. Source: Wellcome Collection.

    6/26 (page 4)
    Housing It seems possible that the size and character of the town's slum clearance problem may be materially altered by certain develop- ments which could not be foreseen when, a year ago, we were making the first tentative estimates. Two of these developments are national and the third local. The first of the national developments is the inclusion in a Bill now before Parliament and likely soon to become law, of provisions by which Local Authorities may take over, re-condition and maintain houses, which, while unsatisfactory as dwellings and likely to become ripe for clearance within twenty years or so, are not in such a bad state as to demand urgent demolition. This will, in effect, mean that a number of houses which would otherwise be demolished fairly soon might have their life extended by, at any rate, a few years. Its significance in Colchester—and elsewhere— will depend upon the extent to which the Authority wishes to make use of its powers. It will be expensive to recondition and maintain these houses, though not so expensive as to build new Council houses. They will, none the less, have to be replaced ultimately, so that the result of this policy will only be to postpone or to spread over thirty years or so the cost of re-housing certain badly-housed persons. Whether it will be worth while to do this will only be discovered when there has been a special and detailed survey of the houses which might possibly be so dealt with. Perhaps equally important will be the proposed changes in the making of improvement grants to owners of houses. In the past, these grants have been subject to somewhat restrictive conditions and have been rather little used in Colchester. It is the Government’s intention that the conditions shall be made easier and that local authorities shall be encouraged to be more generous with public money for this purpose. We have many houses in Colchester which are in fair condition structurally, but which lack certain facilities which are now considered necessary for decent living. In some cases the lack of these facilities, taken in conjunction with their general condition, would have made us advise that the houses were unfit for human habitation and incapable of being made fit at reasonable expense—the criteria for demolition. If, however, the facilities are provided, the position is considerably altered. Again, there are certainly property owners in the town who, knowing that because they lack amenities certain houses are out of date and that the cost of providing the amenities is prohibitive, content themselves with allowing the houses to decay by natural processes and carry out only such first aid repairs as are absolutely essential. If these owners are helped to improve the houses and, therefore, add to their value, they may well be sufficiently interested in their future to carry out major repairs and give the houses an extra twenty or thirty years of life. The local factor is the formation of a Colchester Preservation Society. 1 had hoped that my warning in my last Annual Report