The housing of the Working Classes Act, 1890, annotated, with appendices containing the Incorporated Statutory Provisions, the Working Classes Dwellings Act, 1890, the Standing Orders of Parliament related to Provisional Orders, and the Circulars, Memoranda and Orders of the Local Government Board under the Act / by he author of "The Local Loans of England and Wales".

  • Allan, Charles E. (Charles Edward), 1861-1929.
Date:
1890
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: The housing of the Working Classes Act, 1890, annotated, with appendices containing the Incorporated Statutory Provisions, the Working Classes Dwellings Act, 1890, the Standing Orders of Parliament related to Provisional Orders, and the Circulars, Memoranda and Orders of the Local Government Board under the Act / by he author of "The Local Loans of England and Wales". Source: Wellcome Collection.

Provider: This material has been provided by London School of Hygiene & Tropical Medicine Library & Archives Service. The original may be consulted at London School of Hygiene & Tropical Medicine Library & Archives Service.

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    which would not otherwise be undertaken. It is from this point o£ view that the provisions of the recent Act, which have so greatly- facilitated the taking of proceedings, alike in urban and rural dis- tricts, against individual owners of insanitary dwellings, are especially valuable. On the 2nd of December last, Mr. Eitchie addressed a sei'ies of circulars to the local authorities in the Metropolis, and the urban and rural sanitary authorities in the provinces, drawing attention to the powers which they then possessed in relation to the housiug of the poor. These circulars are now out of date, so far as they explain the law relating to this subject, and have been superseded by the cir- culars and memoranda which have since been issued, and which are set out in the present volume. But the following extracts from them are of permanent interest :— The Local Government Board have had under theii* consideration the great and jDressiug question of the housing of the labouring classes. They cannot avoid the conclusion that a large number of the working population of this country are at present housed in tene- ments which are either unfit for human habitation, or in such a condition as to be distinctly ]n'ejudicial to the health of the inmates. There can be no doubt of the gravity of the evils which result from the insanitary condition of the dwellings of the poor, or of the ability of sanitary authorities, by a strenuous and judicious exercise of the powers which the Legislature has conferred on them for this purpose, to effect a very material improvement in the present condition of these dwellings. The Board deem it right, therefore, again to bring specially under the attention of sanitary authorities the duties which are imposed on them by the Housing of the Working Classes Act, 1886, and the very large statutory powers which they possess in relation to this mat L ;•. *#*«*# These powers have been entrusted to sanitary authorities in order that they may be exercised for the protection of the poor, who are unable themselves, for the most part, to enforce the observance of the laws relating to the public health by their landlords. I have most urgently to impress upon the sanitary authority the grave responsibility which they incur if they neglect to put these powers in force in any case in which their exercise may be required in consequence of the insanitary condition of any dwellings in their district.