Conisbrough Plan to Tackle the Housing Problem

Conisbrough Urban Council’s house letting committee are proposing to the council a scheme for a widespread housing exchange in the district.

In order to give the larger type houses to young married couples with growing families, the committee proposed to ask couples over the age of 50, whose families have grown up, married and left them, to exchange houses with young married couples. By this means they hope to combat overcrowding problems of the younger couples and to make possible less work for the older couples.

In future under the plan, the larger type of houses, usually with four bedrooms, would be let only to young married couples, and the smaller types, with two bedrooms, to older couples.

The council has at present about 900 larger type houses and about 150 small houses. There is a waiting list of over 450 of these, about 258 young married couples waiting for their first house, and some of them have been on the list for over three years.

The council have cut down their waiting list from 600, just after the war to the present 450. Some 38 houses are being built in their district and 10 of these are expected to be occupied by October. Another 60 are expected to be completed within the next 12 months, but it is expected that 30 to 40 of these will be taken up for slum clearance families.

During the past year the housing list has remained fairly stationary because applications have come in as fast as the council have built new houses. Within the next year, however, it is hoped to cut down the waiting list appreciably.

Tenants over the age of 50 are being asked to hand in their names and addresses to the council offices in connection with the proposed plan. The recommendation for this new policy was made at a special meeting of the house letting committee on Monday evening and it will come up for confirmation at the next monthly meeting of the council.