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the house requiring him within a specified time to execute the works
that will render the house fit for human habitation. When the authority
considers the house cannot be rendered fit at a reasonable expense, they
serve a notice under Section 11 of the time and place at which the
condition of the house and any offer with respect to the carrying out of
the works, or the future user of the house, will be considered.
Standard of Fitness for Human Habitation. Section 188 (4) of
the Housing Act, 1936, reads: "In determining for the purpose of this
Act 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 byelaws in operation in the
district, or any enactment in any local Act in operation in the district
dealing with the construction and drainage of new buildings and the
laying out and construction of new streets, of the general standard of
housing accommodation for working classes in the district." The
requirement as to the standard of accommodation for the working classes
was repealed by the Housing Act, 1949. Sanitary defects under the 1936
Act included lack of air space or of ventilation, darkness, dampness,
absence of adequate and readily accessible water supply or sanitary
accommodation or other convenience, and inadequate paving or drainage
of courts, yards or passages.
This section is repealed by the Housing Repairs and Rents Act,
1954; as is also so much of any local instrument as specifies defects by
reason of which a house is to be deemed not to be in all respects fit for
human habitation. Instead, Section 9 of the new Act reads:
"In determining for any of the purposes of the principal Act whether
a house is unfit for human habitation, regard shall be had to its condition
in respect of the following matters, that is to say: (a) repair; (b) stability;
(c) freedom from damp; (d) natural lighting; (e) ventilation; (f) water
supply; (g) drainage and sanitary conveniences; and (h) facilities for
storage, preparation and cooking of food and for the disposal of waste
water; and the house shall be deemed to be unfit as aforesaid if and
only if it is so far defective in one or more of the said matters that it is
not reasonably suitable for occupation in that condition."
A decision that a house is unfit may be passed either upon a major
defect in one of the matters listed, or upon an accumulation of smaller
defects in two or more of them.
Household Arrangements and Amenities. The forms used at
the last census contained headings for information about certain arrangements
in houses. The report points out that some persons completing
the forms seemed to have much difficulty in interpreting the definitions
given, and suggests that the records should be used only as a general
indication of the availability of household arrangements.
A piped water supply is defined as a tap connected to the mains or
to a storage tank which could be reached by a household without leaving
the shelter of a building containing the rooms occupied by it, or of an
attached covered structure. Of the 66,320 households in Harrow, 7,932
share a supply and 64 were said to be entirely without. The percentage
without a supply for exclusive use was 15. The corresponding figure
for the county was 21 and for London 31.