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62
Immediately after the Regulations were confirmed the Sanitary
Committee person ally inspected several houses in the
Parish, and recommended the Vestry, in the first instance, to
register 30 houses. The registration will be extended by
degrees, as may appear desirable.
HOUSING OF THE POOR.
The views of the Vestry on two important points in connection
with this subject were brought under the notice of
the Royal Commission by the Vestry Clerk in evidence.
These points are (1) the necessity of Local Authorities beingvested
with compulsory power of purchase, under the
Labouring Classes Lodging Houses Acts, and the desirability
of transferring the administrations of these Acts to the local
Sanitary Authority, instead of requiring a separate body of
commissioners to be appointed, and (2) the advisability of
transferring the duty of reporting the illegal habitation of
cellar dwellings from the District Surveyors to the Inspectors
of the Local Sanitary Authorities.
With regard to the Labouring Classes Lodging Houses
Acts, the Royal Commissioners suggest that in London the
Acts should be made Metropolitan instead of Parochial, and
be administered by the Metropolitan Board of Works ; that
if necessary for the protection of the ratepayers against an
imprudent scheme, a local enquiry might be held before
sanction is given to the borrowing of money for the purposes
of the Acts; and that compulsory powers to purchase land
under the Acts should be given to, the local authority by
provisional order. The Vestry entertain some doubt as to the
wisdom of making these Acts metropolitan in character, feeling
that the local sanitary authorities might from time to time be
enabled to put them in operation at a smaller cost, if on a less
ambitious scale, and to greater local advantage than a central
Board. With this qualification the Vestry were gratified to find
that their views were endorsed by the Royal Commissioners.