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75
It is unlikely that the Corporation will have occasion to establish any
lodging-houses of this kind.
The new Act consists of four parts and six schedules.
Part I. deals with the housing of the working classes.
Part II. with town planning.
Part III. relates to the appointment, duties, and tenure of office of County
Medical Officers, and the County Public Health and Housing Committees, &c.
Part IV. is described as supplemental, and relates to commons and open
spaces, and land in the neighbourhood of royal palaces and parks.
With regard to Part I. dealing with housing of the working classes, which
gives power to the Corporation, as the local authority in the City, to acquire
lands for erecting houses for the working classes thereon, the Corporation are
unlikely to avail themselves of the provisions.
Some twenty-five years ago, the late Commissioners of Sewers, who at that
time were the local authority for the purposes of the Artizans' and Labourers'
Dwellings Act, erected the large block of Dwellings in Houndsditch, generally
known as the Artizans' Dwellings, and these provide sufficient and suitable
accommodation at reasonable rents for the requirements of the working class
citizens.
The following are the provisions in the new Act, in which the Corporation,
as a sanitary authority, are more directly concerned.
Section 17 imposes upon a local authority the duty of causing from time to
time, an inspection to be made of their district with a view to ascertain
whether any dwelling-house therein is in a state so dangerous or injurious to
health as to be unfit for human habitation, and for that purpose it shall be the
duty of the local authority, and of every officer of the local authority to
comply with such regulations and keep such records as may be prescribed by
the Local Government Board.
The law as regards the closing and demolition of dwellings unfit for human
habitation is simplified and strengthened.
Formerly when action of this kind was necessary the case had to be taken
before a magistrate. Under section 17 (2) of the new Act, if on the representation
of the Medical Officer of Health or of any other officer of the
authority, or other information given, any dwelling-house that appears to
the local authority to be in a state so dangerous or injurious to health as to
be unfit for human habitation, it shall be their duty to make an order