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(43)
HOUSING REPAIRS AND RBNTS ACT, 1954.
This Act, which came into operation on the 30th August, 1954, amends
and amplifies the Housing Act of 1936. Its aims are to make further
provision for the clearance and redevelopment of areas of unfit housing
accommodation, and for securing or promoting the reconditioning and
maintenance of houses; and otherwise to amend the enactments relating
to housing, the exercise of certain powers relating to land, and rent
control.
The underlying policy of the Act was set out in Command Paper 8996:
"Houses - The next Step", as follows%-
"The need for slum clearance is urgent from the human point
of view. It is equally urgent in the interests of the
national economy. We cannot 1st the centres of our cities
decay while they are expanding continually outside their
present boundaries. The core is too valuable, actually and
potentially, to be allowed to rot away; nor can we afford
to take for housing - and out of food production - more than
the absolute minimum of good agricultural land".
Report to Minister - Survey of Unfit Properties.
Each local authority is requested, by 1st August, 1955, to submit
proposals to the Minister of Housing and Local Government for dealing
with houses within their district which appear to be unfit for human
habitation, and with any other houses which are, or in the opinion of the
authority ought to be, included in clearance areas.
It has been agreed between the Metropolitan Boroughs' Standing Joint
Committee and the London County Council that the individual Metropolitan
Boroughs shall make these reports jointly to the Minister, thus carrying
on the liaison between the County Council and the Metropolitan Boroughs
in the matter of slum clearance which had existed prior to the Act coming
into operation. During the year under review, therefore, all likely
areas in the Borough were surveyed, and sample inspections were made in
each area to the extent found to be warranted. The evidence found during
this survey will form a basis for the Borough Council initially to
formulate plans which can, in turn, be the subject of discussions with the
London County Council, and from these negotiations no doubt the report
required by the Minister will emerge.