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the 1890 Act, it became the duty of the medical officer of health
to report to his authority any dwelling-house that appeared to be
in a state so dangerous or injurious to health as to be unfit for
human habitation. Local authorities, under the Housing and Town
Planning Act, 1909, were required to see that inspections were
made in their district for houses so dangerous or injurious to health
as to be unfit for human habitation. The implied contract that a
house should be kept by the landlord reasonably fit for human
habitation during the holding became, under the 1925 Housing Act,
an obligation on the owners of properties not exceeding a certain
rental to see that the house would be kept in all respects reasonably
fit for human habitation. At the same time it was made the duty
of the local authority to cause inspections to be made from time to
time with a view to ascertaining whether any dwelling-house is in
a state so dangerous or injurious to health as to be unfit for human
habitation, and a duty of the medical officer of health to report
such houses to the local authority. The procedure under this Act
for dealing with groups of houses was replaced by the machinery
laid down under the 1936 Housing Act. Clearance Areas under
this Act were groups of dwelling-houses which, by reason of disrepair
or sanitary defect, were unfit for human habitation, or which, by
reason of their bad arrangement or the narrowness or bad arrangement
of the streets, were dangerous or injurious to the health of
the inhabitants, and which were more satisfactorily dealt with by
the demolition of all the buildings. Steps could be taken to
effect the demolition of any dwelling-house unfit for human
habitation which is occupied, or is of a type suitable for occupation,
by persons of the working classes. In the Act it is stated that in
determining whether a house is fit for human habitation regard
shall be had to the extent, if any, to which, by reason of disrepair
or sanitary defects, the house falls short of the provisions of any
bye-laws in operation in the district, or of the general standard of
housing accommodation for the working classes in the district. In
the earlier days of slum clearance inquiries the evidence of the
medical officer of health did deal largely with the vital statistics
of the area under consideration. In the case of large areas where
there was a stable population, such figures could be procured and
might be of value; but because of the low standard of housing
accommodation these areas are more often inhabited by floating
populations. In any event, any statistics are entirely valueless in
the case of small areas. In spite of the fact that legislation insists
on the procedure being initiated by the medical officer of health,
with an indefinite medical background in his representation, the
inquiry, held not by a medical man, follows the line in which more
is heard of cost of repair and incapability of repair than of the
effect of occupation of the premises on the health of the inhabitants.
It is of interest to note that much the same form of words, namely,
that the house or building is in any respect unfit for housing