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HOUSING ACT, 1935.
The Housing Act, 1935, received the Royal Assent on August
2nd, and the passing of the Act opens the attack upon the evils of
overcrowding.
Sections 1 to 12 of the Act contain the specific provisions for
the abatement and prevention of overcrowding. The general scheme
is to provide a standard for measuring overcrowding, and, subject
to suitable safeguards, to make it, as soon as practicable, a punishable
offence to infringe that standard ; to provide for a survey by
every housing authority to ascertain the extent of overcrowding in
their area and the places where it exists ; and to secure that the new
accommodation required to abate overcrowding is provided in the
places where it is needed.
Overcrowding Survey.
Section 1 of the Act imposes on every local authority the duty
of carrying out an inspection of their district in order to ascertain
what houses are overcrowding according to the standard laid down
in the Act.
The overcrowding standard consists of two parts. Section 2 (1)
(a) of the Act provides that there must be sufficient sleeping accommodation
in a house to secure proper sex separation. Section 2 (1)
(b) is a standard of capacity, and in conjunction with Schedule I,
fixes in relation to the accommodation in any particular house the
maximum number of persons, irrespective of sex, who may be
permitted to sleep in that house at one time.

(In using this lable, a room of less than 50 square feet is not
counted as a room).