[Report 1910] / Medical Officer of Health, Chatham Borough.

  • Chatham (Kent, England). Borough Council.
Date:
1910
Catalogue details

Licence: Attribution 4.0 International (CC BY 4.0)

Credit: [Report 1910] / Medical Officer of Health, Chatham Borough. Source: Wellcome Collection.

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    It is clearly thei duty of a Sanitary Authority to see that the above conditions are complied with, and it is only fair to say that the majority of owners will endeavour to comply with them, but there are others with whom difficulty arises, in a few instances from sneer obstinacy, but as a rule because of poverty. It is a fact that some of the worst property belongs to people who have very little means, and who are endeavouring to live on the difference between the rent and the interest payable on the mortgage, and it is obvious that people of this type allow their property to get into defective repair, because they cannot afford to do anything else. There is another class of small owner, who makes his houses quite a lucrative invest- ment, by catering for a class of people who do' not possess any goods of their own, and who can neither afford to rent or to furnish a house. This individual owns or rents ai cottaoe with four or five rooms, which he lets separately as furnished tenements at sums varying from 2s. 6d. to^ 5s. a week. The usual furniture consists of a small deal table, a couple of chairs, a rickety iron bedstead, and a piece of dirty carpet, and your character which I have brought before them. In connection with this form of habitation it is a^ matter for regret that your Council failed to adopt bye-laws for houses let in lodgings, and I trust that they will give further consideration to this important matter. During the early months of the year all proceedings for the improA^e- ment of dwellino'S unfit for human habitation were taken under Sec. O 32 of t]ie Housing of the Working Classes Act, 1890, but more re- cently since the issue of the Housing Regulations in September, 1910—- dealing with the procedure to be adopted under Sec. 17, Housing and Town Planning Act, 1909—unhealthy houses hawe been dealt with under this latter section. Under Sec. 17 of this Act it becomes the duty of every Local Authority to make inspections of their district, with a view tO' ascer- tain if any dwelling house therein is in a state so dangerous or in- jurious to health as to be unfit for human habitation, and on the representation of the Medical Officer of Health, or other Officer desig- nated, if a dwelling appears to be in such a state, it shall be their duty to make a closing order, until in the judgment of the Local Authority a dwelling is rendered fit for that purpose. The difference between the old Act and the new is that closing orders under the former were made by a Court of Summary Jurisdiction; now they will be made bv the Local Authority. The closing order does not become opera- tive for 14 days, and during that period the owner has a right of appeal. Another Section (15) of the Housing and Town Planning Act is designed to secure that houses during the holding shall be kept by the landlord in all respects reasonably fit for habitation, and it provides machinery for remedying any default on part of the landlord. Sanitary Committee will recollect various instances of this
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