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35
local the administration of affairs, a central authority will always
be necessary to keep the local executive everywhere in action".
By then only Chelsea and Hackney had made, implemented, and
enforced Regulations under Section 35 of the 1866 Act and had
appointed suitable and sufficient enforcement officers to ensure
compliance with these salutory rules. So successful were these
officers that Chelsea's Medical Officer could say in his Annual
Report for 1870 "I have seen no reason to alter my previous opinion
of the beneficial effects of the measure by which we have been
enabled to bring under direct and constant supervision the majority
of houses occupied by the poor*.
Progress in housing administration was effected with the
Artizans and Labourers Dwellings Act, 1868 (Torren's Act) whereby
local health authorities could acquire and improve old houses and
secure sanitary improvements in others, where-ever this was necessary.
Overcrowding could also be mitigated and the demolition of
unfit houses incapable of reasonable repair was prescribed for,
after a report by a sanitary officer and enquiry made thereto. New
houses were also to be provided by the local authority. Thus the
first real attempt to secure due enforcement of standards of fitness
for human habitation in poor houses was instituted; but once more
the administering authorities failed to accept their responsibilities.
Another Statute of 1875 "The Artizans and Labourers Dwellings
Act" known as Cross's Act, permitted the clearance of whole
areas of slum property with reconstruction on the site to provide
dwellings for the working classes, for which purpose compulsory
purchase powers were afforded to the sanitary authorities. Owners
were compensated for loss on agreement with the Metropolitan
Board of Works with disagreements settled by an arbitrator who
assessed the loss at a fair market value, regard being had to the
nature and conditions of the property. Experience proved Cross's
Act to be cumbrous and costly to the rate-payers, because arbitrators
valued unfit properties as being sound and available to willing
purchasers. Thus dilatory landlords allowed their property to become
unfit, knowing that full compensation would be paid on demolition
by the local authority.
The Sanitary Law Amendment Act, 1874 made the submission
for approval and the enforcement of regulations to control houses let
in lodgings under Section 35 of the Sanitary Act, 1866 obligatory on
all sanitary authorities and a Select Committee on Artizans Dwellings
in its Report of 1882, sixteen years after the 1866 Act, stated
"that so long as Vestrymen own little properties and so long as