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41
HOUSING
HOUSING ACT, 1961
This Act came into operation on the 24th November, 1961. The Public
Health Committee will be concerned in the main with Part II of the Act which
deals with houses in multiple occupation and gives local authorities new and
greatly strengthened powers to deal with unsatisfactory living conditions in
such houses The new powers fall into the following four main groups:-
(i) An entirely new power to apply a code of management to individual
houses in which proper standards of management have not been observed.
(ii) Stronger powers to require the provision of additional facilities and
amenities essential to decent living conditions, and the provision
of adequate means of escape from fire.
(iii) A new power for local authorities to carry out works themselves in
default and recover the cost
(iv) A power, also new, to make a direction limiting the number of persons
who may live in a house, or part of a house, which is in multiple
occupation.
Failure to comply with the management regulations or with a direction is
punishable on summary conviction by penalties ranging from up to £20 for a first
offence to a maximum of £100 and three months imprisonment for second and
subsequent offences.
Part II
AMENDMENTS OF HOUSING ACT, 1957
Houses in multiple occupation
SECTION 12 (Power to apply management code to houses in multiple occupation)
empowers a local authority, if it appears to them that a house or part of a
house which is let in lodgings or occupied by members of more than one family
is in an unsatisfactory state in consequence of failure to maintain proper
standards of management, to make an order applying to the house the Regulations
to be made by the Minister under the next section.
SECTION 13 (Regulations prescribing management code) empowers the Minister to
make Regulations for ensuring that the person managing a house in multiple
occupation observes proper standards of management, and in particular ensures
the repair, maintenance, cleansing and good order of
(a) all means of water supply and drainage in the house,
(b) kitchens, bathrooms and water closets in common use,
(c) sinks and bathrooms in common use,
(d) common staircases and passageways,
(e) outbuildings, yards and gardens in common use and that he makes
satisfactory arrangements for the disposal of refuse and litter
from the house.
(Regulations made under this section came into operation on 22nd May, 1962).
SECTION 14 (Power to require doing of work to make good neglect of proper
standards of management) enables a local authority by written notice to require
a manager of a house to carry out such works as in the opinion of the local
authority are necessary to make the house comply with the regulations made
under the last foregoing section