ENG-1968 — Page 190

LAND AND HOUSING

137

Twenty-four square feet for an adult was taken as the minimum requirement for health. With minor modifications (the most im- portant of which was the provision of a number of self-contained flats with private balconies in the later blocks), and with an improved external appearance, 240 of these blocks (known as Marks I and II) had been built before the design was superseded in 1964.

In 1964 the original H-block was abandoned in favour of a new design. The new blocks were first of eight storeys (Mark III), and then of 16. The first versions of the 16-storey design were known as Mark IV, and during the year these began to be superseded by a development known as Mark V-essentially similar to the earlier design, but with room sizes more closely-related to family sizes. The new design, from Mark III onwards, differs fundamentally from the older one in that access is from a central corridor on each floor instead of from external common balconies. This makes it possible to give each room a private balcony. Other innovations include refuse chutes, the installation of electrical power and light points in domestic rooms (which had been the tenant's respon- sibility in the older designs), lifts in the 16-storey blocks, private lavatories in place of the former communal latrines and wash- houses, and, in Mark V and the later Mark IV blocks, a private water-tap. A programme to install individual water-taps in the early Mark IV, and Mark III, blocks was started during the year. The new blocks cost more to build but they represent a considerable advance as they provide better facilities and ventilation, more privacy and more open space, between the buildings. The latest design, Mark VI, will be built to a larger room-grid to give effect to the Housing Board's recommendation that families should be allocated 35 square feet of space per adult on occupation. By the end of 1968, a total of 142 Mark III, 62 Mark IV and 22 Mark V blocks had been built, bringing to 466 the number of blocks of all types administered by the Resettlement Department. Between them these blocks housed 1,024,600 people, some 46 per cent of them in the newer types.

A pilot scheme was approved at the end of the year for converting blocks in the old Mark I and II estates into self-contained flats, each with its own lavatory and water supply and some with their own balconies.