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relation to any room on the premises the maximum number of persons by whom
it is suitable to be occupied for sleeping purposes at any one time, or, if
appropriate, that the room is unsuitable to be occupied for sleeping purposes.
It will be an offence after the notice has become operative to cause or
allow any rooms to be occupied otherwise than in accordance with the notice,
or to cause or permit the accommodation to be so occupied that it is not
possible to avoid persons of opposite sexes over the age of 12 years
(excluding persons living together as husband and wife) occupying sleeping
accommodation in the same room.
The premises affected vary considerably and render impracticable
the provision of a single rigid code of requirements applicable to all
cases; indeed, such a code would appear to be contrary to the wishes of
the Minister, who has expressed the view that the provision of the
prescribed services and amenities should be decided on the merits of
each case.
The Council have adopted certain standards of the essential
services and amenities which will be considered as satisfactory in
appropriate cases.
The work of enforcing the Council's standards falls into two
categories :-
(a) where large houses are properly converted for
multiple occupation it is found that in practice
that owners and contractors co-operate willingly
in providing the necessary amenities?
(b) in the case of houses which are let for multiple
occupation without proper conversion (especially
furnished lettings) a certain amount of difficulty
has been experienced in enforcing the standards.
Usually these houses are of the poorer class
property and the occupants are somewhat nomadic
in character. In these houses it is difficult to
obtain the exact details of occupation, and when
pressure is brought to bear upon the landlord he
generally has no hesitation in serving notices to
quit. In one or two cases the Council have had
to resort to formal notices under Section 36 of
the Housing Act, 1957> in order to obtain the
desired improvements.
Slum Clearance
Action already taken
The following table gives details of the clearance areas declared
by the Council since 1950, when slum clearance work under the Housing
Acts was recommenced, up to the end of the year:-