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Authorities are:(a) Underground rooms, (b) By-laws with respect
to tenement houses, (c) Back-to-back houses.
(a) Section 17 prohibits the use of underground rooms
for sleeping purposes unless conforming to certain requirements,
and is an advance on section 96 of the Public Health
(London) Act. The defect in the latter Act in this connection
is due to the fact that an underground room, if used in conjunction
with another room in the same house not underground,
does not come under the section, and this section is
amended by the Housing and Town Planning Act, 1909. This
section comes into force on the 1st July, 1910.
(b) Section 16 imposes on the owner, as defined under the
Public Health (London) Act, the duty of complying with the
By-laws made under section 94 of the Public Health (London)
Act with regard to the carrying out of work. In default
of the owner carrying out the work required within
three weeks of the service of notice, the Authority may do
the work themselves and recover the cost from the owner. It
may be necessary, therefore, to revise the existing by-laws as
to houses let in lodgings.
(c) Section 43 prohibits the erection of back-to-back
houses, and also applies to the case of tenement houses
where the tenements are placed back to back—unless it can
be certified by the Medical Officer of Health that they are so
constructed and arranged as to secure effective ventilation
of all habitable rooms in every tenement.
Under section 17 the Local Government Board may make
regulations and prescribe the records relating to the dwelling
houses in each district. The regulations have not yet been
issued, but the Board have issued a circular letter in which is
foreshadowed the importance attached by them to this matter.
Housing of the Working- Classes Act.
16-29, Didcot Street.
During 1909, on the representation of the Medical Officer
of Health, notices, under the Housing of the Working Classes
Act, 1890, Part II., Sec. 32, were ordered on the 9th June by the
Council to be served on the Owner in respect of certain insanitary
houses in Didcot Street. The notices were duly served by the
Town Clerk on the 24th July.