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Public Health Inspection of the Area -1964
Report of Chief Public Health Inspector
The first need - and the first right of every family - is a place to live. Yet,
incredibly, in this affluent society of 1964, the number of homeless is not going down.
It is not even remaining steady, it is increasing at a disturbing rate. One estimate
puts the total of homeless families in Britain well over ten thousand. In London alone,
it is said that there are about one thousand families without a place of their own.
As so often happens when a commodity vital to the community is in short supply, exploitation
occurs. So widespread were reports of exploitation of the housing shortage in
London and elsewhere that earlier this year the Government set up a special Committee,
under the Chairmanship of Sir Milner Holland, Q.C., to investigate "Rachman type of
abuses to tenants in rented accommodation," and from the questionnaire issued by that
Committee it would seem that the underlying emotion of this sordid speculation in the
accommodation needs of a desperate population is fear - fear of abuse, fear of persecution,
fear of maltreatment, fear of the loss of one's possessions, fear of exorbitant
rents, and, above all, fear of eviction.
The unfortunate tenants of this type of accommodation may not readily understand
the legal, administrative and technical ramifications of control orders, management
orders, and the like, but what they do understand is, that any complaint they may make
regarding their accommodation, and any action taken by the Local Authority to improve
their lot, could, and so often does, result in eviction.
In my reports of 1962 and 1963 I drew attention to the precarious plight of such
people, and stressed the need for amending legislation to deal with the problem. Since
then the matter has received much publicity, and on the 17th December this year Parliament
passed the Prevention of Eviction Act, 1964. This Act empowers county courts to
delay the eviction of tenants of most privately-owned flats or rooms.
The Act provides that a landlord cannot evict a tenant without first getting an
order from the county court. The county court may give the landlord an order for
possession, but may also allow the tenant a period of grace before the landlord may act
on the order. The period of grace may be any period up to twelve months, during which
the court may impose conditions, including conditions about rent.
The court may, if asked, review any order which it has already made. It can alter
any conditions it has imposed; it can extend the period of grace (up to a total of
twelve months but not more); or it can reduce or end it. Even if an order for possession
has been made before the Act came into force, either by the High Court or by the
county court, a tenant can ask the court to alter it. Before coming to a decision the
court will offer both the landlord and the tenant an opportunity to state his case, and
will take account of all the circumstances. Tenants of furnished premises now have the
protection given by the new Act, whether or not they had, or still have, the right to
refer to a rent tribunal.
The powers available to local authorities to deal with unsatisfactory living
conditions in houses in multiple occupation have also been strengthened and extended
by the Housing Act, 1964, which was introduced in July of this year.
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