View report page

48
In addition, new and improved Regulations were asked for
under Section 18 (1) of the Principal Housing Act, which provides
for the making of a "Closing Order" in respect of any Underground
Room which contravenes the Regulations made under this Section.
The new Regulations were made and came into force on the
8th May, 1933. Section 18 (l) is as follows:—
(1) A room habitually used as a sleeping place, the surface of
the floor of which is more than three feet below the surface of the
part of the street adjoining or nearest to the room, or more than
three feet below the surface of any ground within nine feet of the
room, shall for the purposes of this Part of this Act be deemed to
be A HOUSE SO DANGEROUS OR INJURIOUS TO HEALTH AS TO BE
unfit for human habitation, if the room either—
(a) is not on an average at least seven feet in height from
floor to ceiling; or
(b) does not comply with such regulations as the local
authority with the consent of the Minister may prescribe
for securing the proper ventilation and lighting of such
rooms, and the protection thereof against dampness,
effluvia or exhalation.
Provided that, if the local authority, after being required to
do so by the Minister, fail to make such regulations, or such
regulations as the Minister approves, the Minister may himself
make them, and the regulations so made shall have effect as if they
had been made by the local authority with the consent of the
Minister.
Prior to the operation of the 1930 Housing Act, Local
Authorities have had no powers to close part of a house let off as
a separate tenement and deemed to be unfit for human habitation,
but under Section 20 of this Act a Local Authority may now deal
with "part of a building" by the application of a "Closing Order"
until such "part of a building" has been rendered fit for human
habitation.