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of a dwelling which was built as or converted to a dwelling after
5th July, 1956. Of the seven-tenths grant payable by the local
authority, four-sevenths of this is repayable to the local authority as
Exchequer Grant. Only expenditure incurred after the confirmation
of an Order and approved by the local authority attracts a grant apd
whilst a local authority may pay more than the stipulated amount
(seven-tenths) no corresponding increase in Exchequer Grant will be
forthcoming. In the case of readily removable appliances provided
by the tenant, the grant is one-half of the normal amount (i.e., seventwentieths)
payable initially and the other half becomes payable after
the lapse of two years from the coming into operation of the Smoke
Control Order and then only if the appliance has not been removed.
The second instalment is payable to the person then occupying the
dwelling.
Grants are payable only in respect of private dwellings, except
that local authorities may make grants, as they think fit, towards
adaptations to fireplaces in churches, chapels, buildings used by
charities, etc., where they will be within a Smoke Control Area, but
no Exchequer Grant is payable in these cases.
When a Smoke Control Order has become operative a local
authority may serve a statutory notice upon the owner or occupier
requiring the carrying out of adaptations in or in connection with a
dwelling to avoid contraventions of the Order, and in default the local
authority may themselves carry out the necessary work. A grant is
payable in respect of approved work carried out under notice, or if
the work is carried out in default, only three-tenths of the cost is
recoverable from the person on whom the notice was served.
The Ministry of Housing and Local Government has issued a
most useful memorandum on Smoke Control Areas which goes a long
way towards clearing up many doubts and difficulties which exercised
the minds of Councillors and Officers when the Act was first
published. This memorandum suggests that areas which are wholly
or predominantly industrial should not be included in Smoke Control
Areas and that careful thought would need to be given to areas of
mixed development. It is recognised that whilst industrial smoke
can be reduced substantially by efficient methods of combustion, the
prohibition of smoke entirely from industrial furnaces fired by bituminous
coal would necessitate a change of fuel. To do this on a large
scale would make impossible demands upon the supply of smokeless
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