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97
By-laws relating to Tenement Homes.—The question of the amendment of the
By-laws of this Authority relating to houses let in lodgings was again under
consideration.
It has formed the subject of prolonged negotiations in the past with the
Local Government Board and the London County Council, but has remained
unsettled owing to the difficulty experienced in arriving at a satisfactory
exemption clause. The Local Government Board suggested a clause fixing
a limit of rental under which a house should be registerable, but this was found
to be impracticable in St. Pancras having regard to the varying conditions of
occupation in different parts of the Borough, and the proposal made by this
Council to have an exemption clause fixing a limit to the degree of sub-letting
(i.e., number of rooms in the separate dwellings) which should make the house
registerable was not acceptable to the Board. The chief difficulty experienced
in the case of exemption has been found to be that the desire to exclude houses
which do not require regulation from the operation of the By-laws was apt to
lead to the adoption of a clause which exempted houses particularly requiring
regulation.
The Local Government Board appointed an Inspector to hold a Local Inquiry
in the Borough in regard to the amendment of the Council's Tenement House
By-laws, and the Inquiry was held in the Town Hall on the 15th and 22nd
September, 1908.
Sir Shirley Murphy, the late Medical Officer to the London County Council,
who was under examination at the Inquiry, was asked whether he was prepared
to suggest for the consideration of the Board that no exemption or limitation
clause should be inserted in the Tenement House By-laws, when he replied:
"Yes, I think that is the best solution because it would then give the Borough
Council all the powers they needed to deal with the houses that specially
require regulation. They would not be hampered or limited by anything in
the By-laws, and, further, it would preserve for the London County Council
that position that is given it by the Act of Parliament, but which is lost in
some degree, and very often in a very material degree, if exemptions are put
in. Of course, in the application of sanitary laws there must be the exercise
of discretion, and I do not, myself, see why the Borough Council of St. Pancras
should not accept the responsibility of exercising that discretion, and so long
as the regulations are administered in a bona-fide way, as we have every reason
to hope they would be, then no difficulty would arise. I will not be invidious
by speaking of St. Pancras, but take the position of the County Council with
regard to the districts of London generally. If a sanitary authority under
those circumstances be lax in its administration it would preserve for the
County Council the power of intervention which Parliament obviously intended
it should exercise if necessity arose."
This view against the advisability of including an exemption clause in the
By-laws commended itself to your Public Health Committee, and they were
of opinion that the present By laws did not in that respect require amendment.
The London County Council subsequently called attention to Section 16 of
the Housing and Town Planning Act, 1909, which extends the power of
making By-laws with respect to lodging houses for the working classes, and