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45
SECTION 20 (Grants to persons other than local authorities for improvement of
housing accommodation) empowers a local authority, subject to certain conditions,
to give assistance in respect of:-
(a) the provision of dwellings, by a person other than a local authority
or county council, by means of the conversion of houses or other
buildings;
(b) the improvement of dwellings by such a person;
by way of making a grant.
The Ministry of Housing and Local Government Circular 36/54 revised the
standard of fitness to which a dwelling must conform in order to qualify for a
grant and also reduced the qualifying minimum expenditure from £150 to £100.
The requirement in section 15(2) of the Act that in order to qualify for
grant a dwelling must provide satisfactory housing accommodation for at least
30 years is amended by section 16 of the Housing Repairs and Rents Act, 1954,
to allow the Minister or the local authority, as the case may be, to approve
proposals if satisfied that they are likely to provide satisfactory accommodation
for more than 15 years and "that it is expedient in all the circumstances
that the proposals should be approved". The same section removes the
limit of a maximum expenditure of £800 per dwelling and substitutes therefor a
maximum to the grant itself of £400, with the proviso that where the local
authority and the Minister are satisfied that there is good reason to do so the
£400 maximum grant may be raised.
In sixty-one instances the Council made advances under section 4 of the
Act, but no grants were made under section 20.
SMALL DWELLINGS ACQUISITION ACTS, 1899 to 1923
Applications for advances for the purpose of house purchase were granted
by the Council in sixty-nine instances.
RENT AND MORTGAGE INTEREST RESTRICTIONS ACTS, 1920 to 1939
In the case of certain houses subject to rent control, the tenant could,
on production of a certificate from the local authority that the house was not
in a reasonable state of repair, secure a reduction in rent. Nine such certificates
were issued and there were no applications for cancellation. These
provisions were repealed and replaced as from the 30th August by sections 26
and 27 of the Housing Repairs and Rents Act.
TOWN AND COUNTRY PLANNING ACT, 1947
(Use of residential accommodation for business purposes)
Defence Regulation 68CA, which prohibited, except with the consent of the
local authority, the use of housing accommodation for other than residential
purposes, lapsed on the 6th December, 1952.
The Town and country Planning (Housing Accommodation) Direction, 1952,
provides that, on receipt of an application for planning permission for development
which involves a dwelling-house being used other than as a dwelling, a
local planning authority which is not the housing authority in relation to that
dwelling must consult the latter authority before determining the application.
Applications for such planning consent are therefore referred by the London
County Council, as local planning authority, to the Borough Council for observations,
In 58 cases objections by the Borough Council to the proposed change
of user were supported by the county Council.
Of appeals dealt with by the Minister of Housing and Local Government,
seven were upheld, and eight were dismissed.