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34
HOUSING
Repair of Houses.
The Sanitary authorities have been given increasingly greater
powers to ensure that the health of occupants is not impaired by the
structural condition of the homes in which they are living. Premises
in such a state as to be a nuisance or injurious to health were made
statutory nuisances under the Public Health Act of 1875. A similar
provision now appears in Section 92 of the 1936 Public Health Act
by which nuisances which may be dealt with summarily include any
premises in such a state as to be prejudicial to health or a nuisance. The
Housing of the Working Classes Act, 1885, required sanitary authorities
to secure the proper sanitary condition of all premises within their districts.
In 1890, it became the duty of the Medical Officer of Health to
report to his Authority any dwelling house which appeared to be in a
state so dangerous or injurious to health as to be unfit for human habitation.
The Housing and Town Planning Act, 1890, required local
authorities to see that inspections were made in their districts of 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 houses 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 was 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. It has, then, become the duty of the authority
to cause inspection of properties to be made. During the war, the
mere shortage of staff would have prevented this being undertaken,
quite apart from the futility of doing this work to discover conditions
which because of shortage of labour and material could not be put right.
During these years, then, any action which was called for was taken
under the powers of the Public Health Act, and not under those of the
Housing Act. This remained the position for some time after the end
of the war, but small beginnings have now been made in using again the
powers of the Housing Act to bring about the repair of houses.
The work which can be called for under the Public Health Act is
that necessary to abate a nuisance. Very much more can be called for
under the procedure of the Housing Act. In fact, when the work called
for under Section 9 Notices was completed, the house used to be considered
to be in all respects fit for human habitation and therefore needing at
that time no further attention. On the other hand, when the Section 9
machinery is used the question of the cost of the work to be done has
to be considered, because a Section 9 Notice cannot be served unless the
authority is satisfied that the unfitness from which the house is suffering
can be remedied at a reasonable cost.
The procedure in default of the owner complying with the Notice is
different in the two Acts. In the case of non-compliance with the work