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109
Complaint to the Minister of Health, to act in default of the Borough
Council in any case where they fail to exercise their powers with
regard to underground rooms "in a case where those powers ought to
have been exercised." The legal obligation to deal with underground
rooms therefore undoubtedly exists.
We have been advised that the action which we are obliged to take
under the Housing Act is not restricted to houses occupied by the working
classes, but extends to all classes, and experience has shown that
the higher rents paid in the better class properties render it possible
for the owner more easily to incur the expenditure needed to make
them comply with the law where occasion arises.
Many of the existing underground rooms in terrace houses were
originally intended for quite different uses, e.g., for kitchens, sculleries
and coal cellars. In recent years the properties of which they form
part have been divided, floor by floor, into separate dwellings, with the
result that the underground rooms are now called upon for use as
living rooms. We have taken the view that it is not only legal but
fair and reasonable to insist that landlords who have sub-divided properties
containing underground rooms should ensure that their incoming
tenants should be protected against inefficient lighting and ventilation,
and from dampness, by the provision of appropriate areas, insertion of
damp-proof courses, &c., as set out in the regulations approved by the
Local Government Board and referred to above.
Obviously it is not practicable to deal with all underground rooms
in the Borough at the same time. The policy of the Committee has been
one of gradual progress, implemented at present as follows:—
(1) To deal with the worst cases which have been brought to the
notice of the department, either through complaints received
from the tenants, or from the report of the sanitary inspector
made in the course of his routine inspection.
(2) To bring to the special notice of owners the underground room
regulations when their properties have become vacant.
(3) To enforce the underground room regulations in cases of conversion.
(It may be noted here that it is now the practice of
the London County Council only to give their consent to conversion,
subject to these regulations being complied with.)
As required by law, no action is taken by the Housing Committee
without an opportunity to appear personally before the Committee being
given to all persons interested, where they hear the complaints made
against the property and are entitled to answer them and to submit
their proposals for works, closure or vacation of the premises,—being
given every reasonable opportunity for adjournment and the obtaining