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18
INSPECTION OF THE BOROUGH
The number of intimation notices served in respect
of "nuisances" averaged about 1,550 before the War. This
figure naturally dropped during the war but rose again to a
peak of 2,844 in 1947, with a gradual drop to 960 in 1954
and 1955 and it has since dropped sharply to 706 in 1956 and
383 in 1957.
There are some obvious reasons for these changes.
Before the War there was a large number of registered tenement
houses. These were subject to special byelaws and a fair
proportion of the intimation notices served were in respect
of the periodical cleansing or other requirement of the byelaws.
The Housing Repairs and Rents Act, 1954 repealed
the byelaws and substituted other powers in Sections 11 and 12
of this Act. Section 11 was designed to secure the fitness
of the premises for occupation by the number of families
accommodated but it gave the owner the alternative of carrying
out the necessary work or of evicting one or more families so
that the amenities provided would be adequate for the remaining
families. The section also took away for this purpose the
security of tenure which the tenants had under the Rent and
Mortgage Interest Restrictions Acts.
At that time security of tenure was valuable,
alternative accornnodation was extremely difficult to obtain
and landlords were well aware that it was much more profitable
to let houses furnished both from a financial and management
point of view. It was felt, and I believe rightly, that
Section 11 was unusable at least in London at that time, and
that the service of a notice under this section would create
great hardship whilst achieving very little in the way of
improved conditions. As a result, the hundreds of notices
served under the byelaws before the War were not replaced by
notices served under the above mentioned sections.
Sections 11 and 12 of the Housing Repairs and Rents
Act, 1954 have been repealed but have been re-enacted in the
same form in Sections 36 and 90 of the Housing Act, 1957.
The great increase in the number of notices served
in the immediate post-war period is largely artificial. At
that time a building licence was required if works were to
be carried out costing more than a very small amount and a