[Report 1962] / Medical Officer of Health, Winchester U.D.C. / City.

  • Winchester (England). Urban District Council.
Date:
1962
Catalogue details

Licence: Attribution 4.0 International (CC BY 4.0)

Credit: [Report 1962] / Medical Officer of Health, Winchester U.D.C. / City. Source: Wellcome Collection.

    23/84 (page 20)
    Up to 1919 the eternal plea in the reports of the Medical Officer of Health was for the provision of houses to let at reasonable rents. He sadly reported, year after year, that although the Public Health Committee recognised it had serious problems of unfit houses and overcrowding, it could do nothing about them because there was no alternative accommodation being provided either by private landlords or the Council. Progress was made very slowly. After 1919 the Council realised that private enterprise was not going to provide sufficient houses to let. Indeed, as a business proposition private persons could not afford, even with guarantees, to invest their capital to recoup only the rents which the ordinary wage “-earner could afford to pay. From small beginnings the Council has become the largest landlord, owning a third of all the dwellings in the City. During the last decade the Council has regarded the provision of houses as one of its major public duties and by way of Clearance Schemes have demolished 6.0c/o of the total number of houses in the town. But the Public Health Committee is still faced with the same problems that faced its predecessors fifty years ago. Overcrowding is still present. It has merely changed its location into multi-occupied houses and council houses. It is still as it always had been more of a social problem than one of housing. It is no use offering a dwelling of adequate size if in order to pay the rent the family have to go without other essential things. As 50 years ago, young married couples cannot obtain accommodation and even furnished rooms are barred to them if they have children. Many landlords dare not use the Rent Act procedure to increase rents because of the uneconomic expense of bringing these houses into good repair. Nor can one be happy about today’s fitness standard v/hich is no better than the standard recommended 40 years ago. In fact, there are strong grounds for the view that the present standard is inferior to that of the Housing Act 1930. It is hoped that the law will be amended, based on the 12 points of fit¬ ness used for improvement- grants but one wonders however, whether all the houses which are capable of being improved will be brought up to this standard during the 20th century. Why is it then, that while sanitary conditions have improved so much in the last 100 years, housing conditions are still lagging? Repairs to Property - Section 9 Housing Act, 1957 The improvement of housing standards must still be approached as a crusade against bad environmental conditions and this must not only be directed against dwellings which are so unfit as to demand demolition or permanent closure, but must also seek to recondition houses which can thereby be given an extended lease of useful life.