View report page

— 43 —
question may properly be asked, namely, whether it will
produce a satisfactory modernised dwelling complying with
the statutory conditions and the specified requirements.
(e) Reasonable expenditure on professional fees of
architects, surveyors and engineers may now be included
in the estimated cost of improvement works ranking for
granto
(f) Arrangements have been made with the professional
associations for sending each local authority lists of
architects and surveyors who would be prepared to advise
on improvement work.
The Housing Repairs and Rents Act, 1954, amended the
Housing Act, 1949, in relation to improvement grants, and in
particular
Section 16 made certain amendments in the statutory
conditions attached to the payment of improvement grants under
Part II of the Housing Act, 1949, and (together with Section 37
of the new Act) altered the arrangements for fixing the maximum
rent of dwellings on which grant is paid.
Under the Act of 1949, a dwelling had to be considered to
provide satisfactory accommodation for at least thirty years in
order to attract the granto Under the new Act that period is
reduced to "more than fifteen years" with the added condition
that the Minister or the local authority — as the case may be —
should be satisfied "that it is expedient in all the
circumstances that the proposals or application should be
approved,"
Section 16removes altogether the requirement that schemes
of improvement or conversion must not cost more than £800 per
dwellingj and provides instead a maximum grant of half the
cost of the work per dwelling or £400, whichever is the less.
The power is, however, reserved to local authorities, with
the Minister's concurrence, to pay a higher grant in any case in
which they consider the circumstances justify it.
Section 37 extends the duty of local authorities to fix
maximum rents for grant—aided dwellings within the rateable value
limits of the Rent Acts. They are now required to fix a maximum
rent for all such dwellings, whether let or not, with the
exception of one class, namely, those which have been let for
the first time since 1st September, 1939, and for which a
reasonable rent has been fixed by a rent tribunal under the
Landlord and Tenant (Rent Control) Act, 1949. A rent fixed by
a rent tribunal under that Act for a dwelling improved with the
aid of grant may be increased by 8 per cento of that portion of
the cost of the improvement which is borne by the owner. A
maximum rent fixed by a local authority will become the standard
rent to the exclusion of any existing standard rent.
In fixing the maximum rent the local authority are required
by the section to have regard to "the age of the dwelling, to the
character and condition of the dwelling after the carrying out of
the proposed improvement works and to the cost of those works."
Applications for improvement grants received and dealt with
during 1954 are summarised as follows
Applications received 20
Applications granted 13 (comprising 19
separate "dwellings")
Applications refused 7
Total amount of grants approved £5, 066. 0s. 3d.