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9
and sanitary defects discovered were reported for the
service of statutory notices, and they have since been
remedied.
Housing of the Working Classes Ants.
The passing of the Housing, Town Planning, &c.
Act, 1909, has very considerably increased the powers
of local authorities for dealing with insanitary
property, but it is a matter for regret that, in Section
14 of the new Act, the condition implied in the contract
for letting that the house is fit for human
habitation, was not applied to houses of a higher
rental.
In the Administrative County of London, Section
14 applies to a house, or part of a house, let at a rent
not exceeding £40, but in this district it only applies
to houses let at a rent not exceeding £16, and there
are very few houses or flats in Chiswick which are let
at the rental mentioned. The effect of this is that
Section 15 (which extends the condition implied by
the previous section to include an undertaking that
the house shall, during the holding, be kept by the
landlord in all respects reasonably fit for human
habitation) is practically of no use so far as this
district is concerned. I would also point out, that in
their memorandum on the Housing, Town Planning,.
&c., Act, 1909, the Local Government Board refer to
the advisability of Councils resorting to the provisions
of Section 15 for securing that houses (within
the rental limits mentioned) are put by the landlord
into habitable repair, in preference to enforcing the
powers conferred upon them by Sections 17 and 18 in.