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HOUSING
Slum Clearance
Legislation—Even before the first Public Health Act was passed in 1848 the maintenance
of good sanitary conditions in a healthy environment, together with the abatement and
prevention of overcrowding, had been regarded by the discerning few as of first importance
to the health and well-being of the community.
The law relating specifically to housing has been said to have originated in Lord
Shaftesbury's Acts of 1851 (the Common Lodging Houses Act and the Labouring Classes
Lodging Houses Act); which, for the first time, authorised the provision and regular
inspection of lodging houses. The Acts of 1868 and 1879 (Torrens')*, enabling individual
insanitary houses to be dealt with, and of 1875 and 1879 (Cross')†, empowering local
authorities, including the Metropolitan Board of Works, to clear and reconstruct unhealthy
areas, were, however, of greater importance.
The Council succeeded the Metropolitan Board of Works in 1889. A review of the
sanitary circumstances of the county led the Council to make representations to the
Government for statutory powers to enable it more adequately to deal with the situation.
These representations followed the report of the Royal Commission ‡ which had sat in
1884-5. The Housing of the Working Classes Act was enacted in 1890. This Act was a
milestone in local authority housing administration; it was well founded and it remained
as the principal Act until July, 1925 when it was repealed by the Housing Act of that year.
In spite of great difficulties, largely of a financial nature, the Council had undertaken
thirteen clearance schemes, involving the rehousing of 15,644 persons, up to the end of 1912.
The problems produced by the First World War of high interest rates, serious shortages
of accommodation and scarcity of labour and materials demanded new legislation and the
Act of 1919, known as Addison's Act**, introduced for the first time the payment from
central funds of a subsidy for housing. Various amending Acts followed until the general
law relating to housing was consolidated in the Housing Act, 1925.
The Housing Act, 1930, made better provision for the clearance of unhealthy areas and
introduced a method of dealing with aggregations of unfit houses, known as ' improvement
areas', in which conditions were not so bad as to justify total clearance. This Act also
required the submission to the Minister of Health of programmes of housing measures to
be carried out by local authorities, normally over a five-year period. The Council's programme
envisaged the expenditure of £21,825,000 for the provision of some 34,670 houses
and flats including 6,200 for rehousing persons displaced from clearance and improvement
areas. In 1933 financial conditions improved and the Minister of Health made a special
appeal to all local authorities for a concerted effort to ensure a speedier end to the evil of
bad housing. The Council responded with a programme to cover a ten-year period involving
the displacement of 250,000 persons at an estimated cost of £35,000,000.
The Housing Act, 1935, was designed specifically to deal with the abatement and prevention
of overcrowding; it introduced measures for dealing with 'redevelopment areas'
and repealed those in the Act of 1930 relating to 'improvement areas.' Consolidation
followed in the Housing Act, 1936.
The Housing Act, 1949, made provision for the improvement and conversion of dwellings
with aid from public funds; this hitherto was a facility which had been restricted to rural
areas. The principal Act of 1936, like the earlier Acts, was concerned with the housing
of the working classes and all but a few of its provisions were confined to this class of the
* The Arlizans' and Labourers' Dwellings Act, 1868.
The Arlizans' and Labourers' Dwellings Act (1868) Amendment Act, 1879.
† The Artizans' and Labourers' Dwellings Improvement Act, 1875.
The Arlizans' and Labourers' Dwellings Improvement Act, 1879.
‡ First Report of Her Majesty's Commissioners for Inquiring into the Housing of the Working Classes, 1885.
* * Housing, Town planning, etc., Act, 1919.
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