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38
part of the condemned houses in the area at site value and, with the aid
of a State Grant, carry out such repairs as may be necessary to maintain
them in a tolerably habitable condition until such time as the occupants
can be re-housed. (In Leyton this may mean anything from one to
fifteen or more years.) The Minister is of the opinion that this interim
stage in the treatment of slums should form an integral part of each local
authority's programme wherever it is not possible to demolish and
replace all unfit houses in their district within the next five years.
Accordingly authorities are asked to set out in their programmes, in
addition to their proposals for demolition and replacement, what they
think it will be practicable for them to do by way of acquiring areas
which they cannot clear within that period. In these areas they would
carry out such repair work as is reasonably practicable.
The Minister recognises that this will place an administrative
burden on local authorities, and that adequate staff will be required to
carry it out. But whatever burden is involved, the Government makes
it clear that this is a task which every local authority must face wherever it
is forced to leave people in slum houses with no reasonably early prospect
of re-housing. It is a responsibility—this temporary care of slum
dwellings—which the Minister will share with the local authority by the
approval he gives to their programmes, and they will have the support
of all who favour a practical and realistic approach to the problem.
Finally the Minister states that from a humane point of view the money
and work involved in such operations will be well spent, and that there
should be corresponding savings in the amount of sickness, disease and
human degradation.
Submission of Proposals.
It will not be possible to formulate any definite proposals (for dealing
with slum houses in the Borough) for submission to the Minister under
Section 1 of the Housing Repairs and Rents Act until the Council's policy—
particularly in regard to the principle of Deferred Demolition—is determined.
As already stated, such proposals must be submitted by 30th August, 1955
unless (exceptionally) the Minister extends the period.
Alternative Action.
The only alternative to the acquisition and repair by the local authority
of groups of slum properties in clearance areas in advance of actual demolition
would be for the Council to continue the present practice of attempting to
force owners of insanitary properties to carry out essential repairs by serving
notices under the nuisance abatement procedure of the Public Health Act,
1936. The limitations of this procedure have already been stressed earlier
in this Report, and it should now be realised that in the event of such action
being challenged by the owner on the grounds that the property has reached
the end of its useful life, that it is beyond satisfactory repair and unworthy
of further expenditure, or that the Council is acting unreasonably by not
exercising its statutory powers and duties under the Housing Acts, 1936-54,
the Public Health Committee would have no alternative other than to consider
demolition or closing order proceedings under Section 11 or 12 of the
Housing Act, 1936. So far only a very small number of such cases have