Housing (Agricultural Population) (Scotland) Act 1938
Housing (Agricultural Population) (Scotland) Act, 1938
(1 & 2 Geo. 6.) 38.
An Act to authorise the giving of financial assistance towards the expenses incurred by local authorities in providing housing accommodation for the agricultural population; to promote the provision of new housing accommodation to replace accommodation which is occupied by members of the agricultural population and is unfit for human habitation or overcrowded; to amend the provisions of the Housing (Scotland) Acts, 1925 to 1935, relating to charging orders, insanitary dwelling-houses, the recovery of expenses by instalments, the provision of water-closets, and the making of byelaws as to accommodation for seasonal workers; to amend the provisions of section one hundred and twenty-five of the Public Health (Scotland) Act, 1897; to authorise the making of byelaws with respect to premises used for the accommodation of agricultural workers; and for purposes connected with the matters aforesaid.
[13th July 1938]
B E it enacted by the King's most Excellent Majesty, by and with the advice and consent of the Lords Spiritual and Temporal, and Commons, in this present Parliament assembled, and by the authority of the same, as follows:—
Part I.
for Agricultural Population.Contributions towards Expenses of Accommodation
1 Exchequer contributions towards expenses of accommodation for agricultural population.
(1) The Department shall, subject to the provisions of this Part of this Act, undertake to make, and make, contributions out of moneys provided by Parliament towards any expenses incurred by a local authority in providing under Part III of the Act of 1925 housing accommodation for the agricultural population, in so far as such accommodation is provided with the approval of the Department in houses the erection of which has been, or is, begun on or after the third day of November nineteen hundred and thirty-seven.
(2) Before undertaking to make any contribution under this section, the Department shall be satisfied with the adequacy of the measures being taken by the local authority for dealing with the clearance of unhealthy areas and the demolition or closing of insanitary houses, and for providing accommodation for the persons to be displaced by or in consequence of the measures so taken and for the purpose of putting an end to overcrowding.
(3) A contribution under this section shall be of such amount not being less than ten pounds ten shillings as the Department may with the sanction of the Treasury determine, payable annually for a period of forty years in respect of each house provided with the approval of the Department; and in determining the amount of the contribution so payable by them, the Department shall take into consideration the cost of providing the house, the rent which it will be practicable to obtain therefor, the expenditure already incurred and to be incurred by the local authority under the enactments relating to housing, and the general financial resources of the local authority:
Provided that the amount of the contribution payable in respect of any house shall not exceed fifteen pounds unless the Department are satisfied that the annual expenditure likely to be incurred by the local authority in respect of the house is, in consequence of the remoteness of the site thereof from centres of supply of building labour and material, substantially greater than the equivalent of nineteen pounds ten shillings per annum for forty years.
(4) No contribution shall be made under this section towards any expenses in respect of which the Department are required to make contributions by virtue of section twenty-three of the Act of 1930 or of section thirty of the Act of 1935.
2 Local authorities' contributions towards expenses of accommodation for agricultural population.
(1) A local authority to whom the Department have undertaken to make a contribution under the foregoing section of this Act in respect of any house shall make in respect thereof a contribution out of the appropriate rate in accordance with the provisions of this section.
(2) A contribution under this section shall be provided by equal annual instalments during a period of sixty years from the date of the completion of the house, and shall be of such amount as to be equivalent, when so provided, to the appropriate sum (as hereinafter defined) provided annually for a period of forty years:
Provided that, where the local authority are of opinion that the contribution should be provided by annual instalments during a period of less than sixty years, the Department may on the application of the local authority direct that this subsection shall have effect in relation to the contribution as if there had been substituted therein, for the reference to a period of sixty years, a reference to such period, not being less than forty years, as the Department may think proper.
(3) For the purposes of this section, the appropriate sum shall be a sum equal to one-third of the amount of the Department's contribution (any fractional part of one shilling exceeding sixpence being reckoned as one shilling, and any fractional part of one shilling not exceeding sixpence being disregarded) or the sum of four pounds ten shillings, whichever is the less.
3 Amendment of Act of 1935.
(1) Section thirty-three of the Act of 1935 (which relates to the review of Exchequer contributions) shall have effect as if—
(a ) in subsection (1), after the words ‘this Act’ there were inserted the words ‘and section one of the Housing (Agricultural Population) (Scotland) Act, 1938’; and
(b ) in subsection (8), after the words ‘section thirty of this Act,’ and after the words ‘the said section thirty,’ there were inserted respectively the words ‘or under section one of the Housing (Agricultural Population) (Scotland) Act, 1938’ and the words ‘or in subsection (3) of the said section one.’
(2) Subsection (3) of section forty-seven of the Act of 1935 (which relates to the conditions to be observed by local authorities) shall have effect as if at the end thereof there were added the following words:—
‘and that a number of houses equal to the number in respect of which the Department have undertaken to make a contribution under section one of the Housing (Agricultural Population) (Scotland) Act, 1938, are reserved for the agricultural population.’
(3) Subsection (5) of the said section forty-seven shall in its application to houses which are, under subsection (3) of the said section, reserved for the agricultural population, have effect as if for the reference to persons of the working classes there were substituted a reference to the agricultural population.
(4) The Third Schedule to the Act of 1935 shall have effect as if—
(a ) to Part I thereof, there were added the following words:—
(9)‘9. Section one of the Housing (Agricultural Population) (Scotland) Act, 1938’; and
(b ) in Part III thereof, after paragraph (8) there were inserted the following paragraph:—
(8A)‘8a . The contributions payable by the local authority under section two of the Housing (Agricultural Population) (Scotland) Act, 1938.’
Part II.
by Agricultural Workers and others.Replacement of Unsatisfactory Houses occupied
4 Schemes for replacing unsatisfactory houses.
(1) A local authority may, and if so required by the Department shall, submit to the Department a scheme or schemes for assisting the provision of housing accommodation in new houses in replacement of—
(a ) houses or other premises which, being unfit for human habitation and not capable at a reasonable expense of being rendered so fit, are to be demolished or closed under Part II of the Act of 1930, and which come within any of the following descriptions, that is to say:—
(i) houses, bothies or chaumers or similar premises situated on a farm and occupied in accordance with their contracts of service by agricultural workers employed thereon;
(ii) houses occupied by persons who, being owner occupiers of farms which either do not exceed fifty acres in area or are entered in the valuation roll at a gross annual value not exceeding fifty pounds, are of substantially the same economic condition as agricultural workers;
(iii) houses occupied by statutory small tenants;
(iv) houses occupied by landholders;
(v) houses in the Highlands and Islands occupied by members of the agricultural population who are of substantially the same economic condition as landholders;
(b ) houses, bothies or chaumers or similar premises situated on a farm and occupied in accordance with their contracts of service by agricultural workers employed thereon, which are not in all respects fit for human habitation or are overcrowded, and which by the execution of the works of reconstruction hereinafter mentioned will be combined with adjoining occupied houses or premises and will cease to be occupied as separate houses or premises;
and on approval by the Department of any scheme so submitted, a local authority may in accordance therewith give assistance in the manner hereinafter provided.
(2) Assistance under this section shall be given by way of payment on the completion of the house of a lump sum not exceeding either—
(a ) one half of the cost of the house; or
(b ) one hundred and sixty pounds in the case of a house containing three apartments, or two hundred pounds in the case of a house containing more than three apartments.
For the purpose of this subsection, the reasonable cost of obtaining a title to land...
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