A report published yesterday gave the results of an inquiry which was made into domestic hot-water supplies in Britain during the severe winter of 1947, and, on a smaller scale, during the following summer. The survey was carried out at the instance of the Scientific Advisory Committee of the Ministry of Works and covered some six thousand representative householders.

It was found that only 46 per cent of households had bathrooms. Eight per cent shared one, 31 per cent had a portable bath, and 12 per cent had no bath. In Scotland the proportion without a bath was 35 per cent. Fifteen per cent of the households had no water-heating appliance. Nine per cent used gas geysers, and 21 per cent heated bath water in the boiler of a solid-fuel fire with oven. One woman in three expressed dissatisfaction with the supply of hot water for washing clothes.

The report shows that 7 per cent of the households had no piped water, the percentage rising to ten in the Midlands, Wales, and South and East England, and that one per cent obtained hot water from a central source. To heat water for washing 56 per cent used kettles and pans, the proportion being lowest (46) in Northern England and higher (64) in London and South and East England.

It was observed that solid-fuel appliances (except for the independent boiler) were less common in the South than in Northern regions. Only 13 per cent of the houses in the London area had solid-fuel coppers, as compared with 33 per cent in Scotland, and 38 per cent in the Midlands and Wales. Gas coppers were more widely used in the North of England (47 per cent) than in Scotland (15), and London (17). For heating water the solid-fuel fire with oven and boiler was, apart from coppers, the means most frequently used in the North, the Midlands, and Wales. The open fire with boiler was the commonest appliance in Scotland.

A possible explanation of the distribution of appliances, it is suggested, is that in Scotland space-heating is regarded as the chief requirement, whereas in the South this is not necessary throughout a large part of the year.

The views expressed by women on various appliances indicate that, in general, the immersion heater was the most satisfactory and that the independent boiler came next. One in four with gas geysers complained that the water ran too slowly, and there were complaints that the appliance was often in need of repair. Generally there was a much higher degree of satisfaction with their water-heating methods among women living in houses built after 1918. The report, described as part 1 of “An Inquiry into Domestic Hot-water Supply,” is published at a shilling.

This story prompted a Guardian leading article, which you can read here