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67
demolition, as may be equal to the increase in the value of the
other buildings, among such other buildings, and the Vestry may
assess the occupiers thereof to a special improvement rate for the
purpose of levying the amount so apportioned.
If the Vestry do not proceed on the report of the Medical
Officer of Health, the Guardians of the Parish or Union in which
the property is situate, or any owner of property in the neighbourhood,
may complain to the Metropolitan Board of Works, who
are thereupon empowered to do what they consider the Yestry
should have done, and charge the expenses incurred thereby to the
Vestry in default.
The other provisions of Sir Richard Cross's Acts (the Artizans
and Labourers' Dwellings Improvement Acts, 1875 to 1882) do
not directly affect the Vestry, as the Metropolitan Board of Works
are the Local Authority in the Metropolis for carrying the Acts
into execution. But these Acts have an important bearing on the
subject of housing the poor, and an outline of their principal
provisions is therefore given.
As already remarked, these Acts apply to unhealthy areas, and
not to individual dwellings or blocks of ten or a less number of
houses. The Medical Officer of Health is to report any such area
to the Board, either upon his own responsibility, or at the instance
of two or more Justices of the Peace, or twelve or more ratepayers.
The Board may thereupon prepare an improvement scheme for the
area so reported, or a portion thereof, and the scheme is to provide
for the accommodation in suitable dwellings in the same area or
the vicinity thereof for such proportion, not being less than half
of the number of persons of the working class displaced, as the
confirming authority (the Home Secretary) may sanction or direct.
The scheme, when approved by the Home Secretary, is to be
embodied in a provisional order and submitted to Parliament for
confirmation.
If twelve or more ratepayers complain to the Medical Officer of
Health of the unhealthiness of any area, and the Medical Officer