Hints from the Health Department. Leaflet from the archive of the Society of Medical Officers of Health. Credit: Wellcome Collection, London
[Report of the Medical Officer of Health for Woolwich]
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Clause. 65 makes it an offence wilfully to fail to comply
with a notice requiring the execution of works in a house in
multiple occupation and renders the person liable on summary
conviction to a fine not exceeding £100 for a first offence,
and in the case of a second and subsequent offence to a fine
not exceeding £100 and/or imprisonment for not more than three
months.
Clause 67 empowers a local authority to specify the
number of households or individuals a house which is let in
lodgings or occupied by members of more than one family and,
which in its opinion is defective, having regard to the number
of occupants, could reasonably accommodate if specified works
were carried out. It can, at the same time, require the
execution of such works.
Clause 68 provides that an officer of a local authority may
enter a property without notice and, if necessary, by force,
provided he is authorised by a warrant granted by a Justice of the
Peace,
Clause 69 extends the power granted under the Housing Act,
1961 relating to the application of a management code to houses in
multiple occupation to any tenement block which, on the ljth
November, 1963 lacked any of the standard amenities.
Clause 70 removes the time limit in the Housing Act, 1961
which prevents local authorities from making schemes for the
registration of houses in multi-occupation before November, 1964.
It enables a local authority's scheme to impose an obligation upon
proprietors of houses which are already multi-occupied when the
register is being compiled to notify them of the fact.
Clauses 73 to 90 provide for control orders. A local
authority has power to make a control order in respect of a house
in multiple occupation if it is satisfied that its physical state
or the extent of occupation would make It subject to action under
the Housing Act, 1961 and this is necessary to protect the safety,
welfare and health of persons living In it. A control order comes
Into effect immediately and notice of its making must be given to
the person in control of the house, the residents, and all other
persons known to have an interest in it. Having made a control
order, the local authority may enter and take possession of the
property, and it is authorised to take any action that the owner
would be entitled to do. It has a duty to maintain proper
standards of management and to make any bad conditions which the
landlord would have been called upon to make good if there had
been no order. It may create rights of occupation in the nature
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