§ Mr. Horabinasked the Minister of Health which London boroughs are undertaking the temporary division of large houses into dwellings; the number of properties concerned in each case and the anticipated resulting number of dwellings; what proportion of the dwellings will not be self-contained, will not be furnished with a separate w.c. and will not include the use of a bathroom, or only the use of a bathroom in common with two or three other dwellings, respectively; and whether this plan devised last year when persons were being rendered homeless by V-weapon damage, can now be reviewed and put on a better footing.
§ Mr. WillinkWith the exception of the City of London, Battersea, Bermondsey. 903W and Poplar, all the Metropolitan boroughs are at present engaged on a programme of adapting houses for occupation by more than one family. The total number of properties now being adapted is 1,341 and it is anticipated that 4,219 dwellings will be produced as a result of this work. About 95 per cent. of the resulting dwellings are not self-contained. In general, over the Metropolitan area:
Some 50 per cent. are without separate w.c.'s.
Some 15 per cent. are without bathrooms.
Some 80 per cent. have shared bathrooms.
The following table shows the number of properties being adapted in the various Metropolitan Boroughs:
Local authority. Number of houses being adapted. Resulting number of dwellings. West and North West— Chelsea 106 417 Fulham 136 462 Hammersmith 38 130 Hampstead 100 331 Kensington 55 212 Paddington 50 170 St. Marylebone 66 174 St. Pancras 40 136 Westminster 116 335 East— Bethnal Green 4 8 City of London — — Finsbury 10 22 Hackney 20 50 Holborn 2 10 Islington 100 236 Poplar — — Shoreditch 15 45 Stepney 51 106 Stoke Newington 13 31 South East— Bermondsey — — Deptford 16 23 Greenwich 55 181 Lewisham 25 71 Woolwich 4 11 South West— Battersea — — Camberwell 49 107 Lambeth 23 43 Southwark 100 350 Wandsworth 147 558 1,341 4,219 The three Metropolitan Boroughs not now engaged on a programme have done such work in the past. All local authori- 904W ties will do more where there are suitable properties and when labour becomes available. The aim is to provide the greatest amount of accommodation in the shortest time and to this end the adaptations are, in the majority of cases, being carried out as the first stage toward conversion into self-contained dwellings.