View report page

130
II.—INSANITARY AREAS IN FINSBURY
UNDER THE BOROUGH COUNCIL.
(Part ii. of the Housing Act and the Public
Health (London) Act.)
During the year attention has also been devoted to a number of
small insanitary areas unsuitable for treatment by the London
County Council, under Part 1. of the Housing of the Working
Classes Act. These have therefore been approached from the point
of view of Part II. of the Act, which is applicable to all Sanitary
Districts, and is to be enforced by the Local Authority. It provides
inter alia for the closure and demolition of buildings which are unfit
for human habitation. In dealing with such houses the proceedure
to be adopted must depend upon a variety of circumstances. In
some cases it is preferable to proceed under the Housing Act (Part
ii.), in other cases under the Public Health (London) Act, which is
also enforceable by the Local Authority. These two Acts furnish
the Borough Council with considerable powers, of which it should
avail itself if necessary.
Before advising the Council to put these powers into force, I have
made it ray duty to see the owner in each of the following areas
and have fully set before him or his solicitors, the various defects of
the property. Further, I have pointed out, where necessary in unmistakeable
terms, that unless the owner himself would sufficiently
repair or close the properties in question, it would be necessary for
me to proceed under the Acts above-mentioned. It has seemed to
me that this method of first approaching the owner in a personal
way before issuing legal notices against him has considerable advantages
to recommend it, and affords the owner ample opportunity of
discharging his duties to his property and tenants. I have to report
that in the following eight areas in which this course has been
adopted it has resulted in each case in the owner himself
undertaking the necessary sanitary repair rather than the Local
Authority. This is, in my judgment, as it should be. Property has
its duties as well as its rights. In the event of non-compliance, or
non-acceptance of responsibility for the insanitary conditions
existing, it would, of course, be necessary for me to advise the
the Borough Council to proceed with strictness against such owners,