[Report of the Medical Officer of Health for Greenwich Borough].

  • Greenwich (London, England). Metropolitan Borough.
Date:
[1962?]
Catalogue details

Licence: Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International (CC BY-NC 4.0)

Credit: [Report of the Medical Officer of Health for Greenwich Borough]. Source: Wellcome Collection.

    121/176 (page 115)
    115 The Group B section comprises applicants who have built up points representing residential qualification and period of waiting on the register itself or who have 10 or less points affecting housing need. Owing to the heavy demands which the Housing Committee have to meet during the next 5-year period, it is recognised that very little progress can be made in the direct housing of these families. Nevertheless the Committee recognise that many of these families are living in dwellings which fall short of present day housing standards and because of these circumstances it has been decided to approach the owners to ascertain if they would be willing to sell these properties to the Council in order that a scheme of improvement might be applied and thereby secure a further valuable contribution towards the housing pool for general letting purposes. In previous reports I have indicated a continued fall in the number of registered applicants on the general waiting list and I find that again this trend has continued during the year. This is indicative of housing progress and also attributable to the constant revision of the register itself because it means that of the total number of applicants seeking more suitable housing accommoda tion, the figure is at least realistic since applications are cancelled in cases where the registration cards are not submitted for endorse ment each year. The mutual exchange system continues to serve a very good purpose. It is available to any person who is interested in trying to effect a mutual exchange to solve their housing problem. Council or private tenants inside or outside the Borough are eligible for consideration and the system is particularly helpful in the case of families with bona fide reasons who desire to move into Green wich from some other part of the country coupled with the move ment of the family out of the Borough. Another main function of the register is to assist tenants of Council dwellings to solve their housing and domestic problem by exploring the possibility of exchanging with another within the Borough. At the present time some 392 names are listed on the mutual exchange register. During the year 43 cases involving mutual exchanges were arranged as com pared with 39 during the corresponding period of 1960. From the end of 1962 onwards the intake of accommodation from the Council's new building programme shows considerable improvement on the immediate past two years, it being anticipated that about 750 additional dwellings will be provided up to the end of 1965 which figure, of course, will include a certain number of acquisitions of existing properties under the Council's general redevelopment plan.