View report page

75
(4) Closing Orders in respect of Underground Rooms.
An underground room is any room of a house the floor of which room is more than three
feet below the surface of the footway of the adjoining street or of the ground adjoining or nearest
to the room. The Council have special but limited powers in regard to these rooms. The majority
of back basement rooms in Kensington are not technically underground and in other cases where
the rooms appear to be underground the Council's powers are not for one reason or another
enforceable.
Three hundred and fifty eight underground rooms were specially inspected in 1923 and they
were reported upon last year.
Of the 362 underground rooms inspected and measured up in 1924, there were 65 which did
not comply with the Regulations and in regard to which the Council s powers could be put into
operation.
In 14 cases illegal use of the rooms was discontinued or the necessary structural alterations
were carried out by the owners on receipt of the Council's notices. In the remaining 51 cases the
Council issued Underground Room Closing Orders which prohibit the use of the rooms for sleeping
purposes until they are so altered as to comply with the Regulations. These Closing Orders were
complied with in all except two cases. In these two, the owner failed in an attempt to obtain a
Magistrates' Ejectment Order against the tenants and at the end of the year nothing had been done.
(5) Closing Orders in respect of Houses Unfit for Habitation.
A local authority can prohibit the occupation of a house in a state so dangerous or injurious
to health as to be unfit for human habitation; but, in view of the difficulty of finding alternative
accommodation for the displaced tenants, the Council endeavour to secure habitable conditions by
the full use of all their powers before resorting to the issue of Closing Orders under Section 17 of
the Housing, Town Planning, etc., Act, 1909.
In 1924, two Closing Orders were issued and both became effective. In due course, the
Council notified the owners that they proposed to consider the question of demolition, and on
receiving this intimation, the owner in each case undertook to repair the property. It is hoped
shortly to determine the Closing Orders on the houses becoming habitable.
(6) Work under Section 28 of the Housing, Town Planning, etc., Act, 1919.
This Section provides that if the owner of a house suitable for the working classes fails to keep
that house in all respects reasonably fit for habitation, the Council may require him to execute such
works as are necessary. The owner can appeal, and may, in certain circumstances, close the
house, but if he neither exercises his rights nor carries out the repairs, the Council can do the work
and recover the cost with interest, the Council's expenses becoming a first charge on the premises,
including the freehold.
Section 28 has been considerably strengthened by Section 10 of the Housing, etc., Act, 1923,
which gives the Council the powers and remedies of a mortgagee under the Conveyancing Acts,
1881-1922, for the purpose of recovering their expenses. Section 10 also defines the appeals of
which the owner may take advantage, and prescribes the times within which they must be made,
with the result that certain doubts which existed in regard to the interpretation of Section 28 have
been removed and the Council feel much more secure in availing themselves of the powers granted
thereunder.
In 1924, Section 28 notices were served in respect of 32 houses. In 20, the houses were
repaired by the owners to the satisfaction of the Council; in six, the repairs are now in hand ; and
in the remaining six, which are a row of houses in one ownership, the extended time allowed to
the landlord in which to carry out the repairs specified in the notices expired on 25th March, 1925.
In not one case during 1924 was it necessary for the Council to step in and carry out the
repairs required.
(7) Work under Part 111. of the Housing of the Working Classes Act, 1890.
During 1924, the Council purchased four dilapidated houses in the Notting Dale area and two
derelict houses in the Golborne Ward; these are now being converted into 24 flats.
The Council also acquired a block of eighteen defective tenement flats with an adjoining vacant
piece of land, and have now under consideration a scheme for the demolition of the flats and the
provision of housing accommodation for the working classes on the cleared site and the adjoining
vacant land.
(8) General Summary.
The work outlined above may be regarded as mainly an addition to the normal work such as
was carried on in previous years, and it does not indicate the full measure of improvement in
housing conditions which has been effected. During the year the ten District Sanitary Inspectors
have spent as much time as could possibly be spared on housing duties, and very active steps have
been taken with a view to securing remedies for the defects discovered in the houses visited. It
will, therefore, be useful to give a general summary of all the housing work carried out in the year
by the officers of the Public Health Department, including the routine housing work of the
Department and that performed in pursuance of the Council's Special Housing Policy of 1923.