View report page

The Council is prepared to give Standard and Discretionary grants for the
improvement of properties. During 1965, 178 applications for grants were received,
5 were subsequently withdrawn and 142 grants (63 discretionary, 115 standard) were
completed. Although the 1964 Act provides for a reduced standard of amenity,
the Council is not prepared to agree to a reduced standard and all of these houses
were improved to the full standard.
Although a considerable number of houses are improved annually, the number
is still small in relation to the number considered to be suitable for improvement.
It is estimated that about 11,000 houses are suitable and the present rate of improvement
must be accelerated appreciably if the occupants are to enjoy the
amenity of a bathroom in the foreseeable future. The use of prefabricated bathrooms
is being explored and it is hoped that this method can be used in the
improvement areas.
The Housing Act, 1964, Part III is aimed at making grants more attractive
and thus to encourage more owners to improve their dwellings. There is included
a provision for a reduction from ten years to three years in the period during which
rent or other conditions attach to a house improved with grant.
Part II of the Act provides another new device enabling the local authority to
make improvement areas. The Act provides, inter alia, that " If a local authority
are satisfied that any area in their district contains dwellings lacking one or more
of the standard amenities and that, of the dwellings in that area which are so lacking,
at least one half—
(a) are so constructed that it is practicable to improve them to the full standard,
and
(b) will, after they have been improved to the full standard, be in such condition
as to be fit for human habitation, and will be likely, subject to
normal maintenance, to remain in that condition and available for use as
dwellings for a period of not less than fifteen years,
the local authority may cause the area to be defined on a map and may pass a
resolution declaring the area so defined to be an improvement area for the purposes
of this Part of this Act."
The effect of this is to compel owners to improve tenanted dwellings in such
areas.
In Circular No. 53/64, the Minister of Housing and Local Government states,
inter alia, that "The choice of areas suitable for improvement will require careful
consideration. The main point the Minister wishes to emphasise is that area
improvement is something more than a means of providing amenities in individual
houses. It is part of the process of urban renewal. So, in choosing areas for early
action, and in implementing their schemes of improvement, local authorities should
consider all the measures which are open to them to fit areas for the requirements
of modern living and for improving the quality of the environment—for example,
the provision of new street furniture, tree planting, more parking facilities, better
62