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A number of defects were discovered and remedied, notices being
served under the Public Health Act. Pour houses unfit for habitation
were closed voluntarily by the owners.
Thirty-four houses were inspected under Section 17 of the Housing
Acts, but no representations as to unfitness for habitation were made,
as the owners either undertook to carry out the required improvements,
or to pull them down ; five were demolished, and ten are included in a
scheme in a Bill now before Parliament.
One house with respect to which a demolition order was made was
pulled down.
A notice under Sec. 15 (3) Housing and Town Planning Act was
served requiring premises 43, Tufton Street, to be put into habitable
condition and was complied with.
Converting Condemned Dwelling-Houses to Other Uses.—The question
has been raised on more than one occasion whether a local authority
could allow a dwelling which had been closed to be converted to other
uses, but apparently they must proceed to a demolition order if it is
not made habitable. In this connection the following extract from the
annual report of the Local Government Board (Scotland) for 1912 is
of interest, and it appears desirable that local authorities in England
should have discretionary power to withhold a demolition order on
being satisfied that structural alterations had been effected which
would prevent the use of a building as a dwelling:—
“We entered into the question of the competency of converting to
other uses a dwelling-house in respect of which a closing order has
become operative very fully in our last report. While the question
was a difficult one and not free from doubt, it appeared to us, as
advised, that if an owner determined to put a condemned building to
a different use, the local authority had no power to prohibit such use
of the building by demolishing it, unless it is a ‘nuisance or dangerous
or injurious to the health of the public or of the inhabitants of the
neighbouring dwelling-houses.’ As doubts had been expressed regarding
the soundness of this view, we deemed it advisable to consult
the Scottish Law Officers of the Crown on the point. As the question
is an important one, we give their opinion here in full:—
“We are of opinion if the owner of a building which has been
occupied as a dwelling-house undertakes that it shall no longer be
so occupied, but shall be put to a different use, e.g., a store, then a
demolition order under Sec. 18 (2) of the Housing Town Planning,
&c., Act, 1909, ought not to be pronounced. If, however, the
building, although not occupied as a dwelling-house, is in such a
condition as to be a nuisance, or dangerous to the health of the