Housing Act 1930
| Jurisdiction | UK Non-devolved |
| Citation | 1930 c. 39 |
| Year | 1930 |
Housing Act, 1930,
(20 & 21 Geo. 5.) CHAPTER 39.
An Act to make further and better provision with respect to the clearance or improvement of unhealthy areas, the repair or demolition of insanitary houses and the housing of persons of the working classes; to amend the Housing Act, 1925, the Housing, &c., Act, 1923, the Housing (Financial Provisions) Act, 1924, and the other enactments relating to housing subsidies; and for purposes connected with the matters aforesaid.
[1st August 1930]
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.
Improvement of Unhealthy Areas.Provisions with respect to the Clearance or
Clearance Areas.
1 Local authority may declare unhealthy area to be clearance area.
(1) Where a local authority, upon consideration of an official representation or other information in their possession, are satisfied as respects any area in their district—
(i) that the dwelling-houses in that area are by reason of disrepair or sanitary defects unfit for human habitation, or are by reason of their bad arrangement, or the narrowness or bad arrangement of the streets, dangerous or injurious to the health of the inhabitants of the area, and that the other buildings, if any, in the area are for a like reason dangerous or injurious to the health of the said inhabitants; and
(ii) that the most satisfactory method of dealing with the conditions in the area is the demolition of all the buildings in the area,
the authority shall cause that area to be defined on a map in such manner as to exclude from the area any building which is not unfit for human habitation or dangerous or injurious to health and shall pass a resolution declaring the area so defined to be a clearance area, that is to say, an area to be cleared of all buildings in accordance with the provisions hereinafter contained:
Provided that, before passing any such resolution, the authority shall satisfy themselves—
(a ) that in so far as suitable accommodation available for the persons of the working classes who will be displaced by the clearance of the area does not already exist, the authority can provide, or secure the provision of, such accommodation in advance of the displacements which will from time to time become necessary as the demolition of buildings in the area, or in different parts thereof, proceeds; and
(b ) that the resources of the authority are sufficient for the purpose of carrying the resolution into effect.
(2) A local authority shall forthwith transmit to the Minister a copy of any resolution passed by them under this section, together with a statement of the number of persons of the working classes who on a day specified in the statement were occupying the buildings comprised in the clearance area.
(3) So soon as may be after a local authority have declared any area to be a clearance area, they shall, in accordance with the appropriate provisions hereafter in this Act contained, proceed to secure the clearance of the area in one or other of the following ways, or partly in one of those ways and partly in the other of them, that is to say—
(i) by ordering the demolition of the buildings in the area; or
(ii) by purchasing the land comprised in the area and themselves undertaking, or otherwise securing, the demolition of the buildings thereon.
2 Clearance orders.
(1) Where as respects any area declared by them to be a clearance area a local authority determine to order any buildings in the area to be demolished, they shall make and submit to the Minister, for confirmation by him, an order (in this Act referred to as a ‘clearance order’) ordering the demolition of each of those buildings.
(2) The provisions of the First Schedule to this Act shall have effect with respect to the making, submission and confirmation of clearance orders.
(3) When a clearance order has become operative, the owner or owners of any building to which the order applies shall demolish that building before the expiration of six weeks from the date on which the building is required by the order to be vacated or, if it is not vacated until after that date, before the expiration of six weeks from the date on which it is vacated or, in either case, before the expiration of such longer period as in the circumstances the local authority may deem reasonable; and, if the building is not demolished before the expiration of that period, the local authority shall enter and demolish the building and sell the materials thereof.
(4) Any expenses incurred by an authority under the last preceding subsection, after giving credit for any amount realised by the sale of materials, may be recovered by them as a simple contract debt in the county court within the jurisdiction of which the premises are situate from the owner of the building or, if there is more than one owner, from the owners thereof in such shares as the judge may determine to be just and equitable; and any owner who pays to the authority the full amount of their claim may in the like manner recover from any other owner such contribution, if any, as the judge may determine to be just and equitable.
Any surplus in the hands of the authority shall be paid by them to the owner of the building, or if there is more than one owner, shall be paid as those owners may agree, or may, in default of agreement, be paid into the county court in accordance with the provisions of section seventy of the County Courts Act, 1888 , as if the authority were by virtue of this subsection trustees of the surplus for the owners of the building, and may be paid out to the owners by order of the judge in such shares as he may determine to be just and equitable.
A county court judge, in determining for the purposes of this subsection the shares in which any expenses shall be paid or contributed by, or any surplus shall be divided between, two or more owners of a building, shall have regard to their respective interests in the building, their respective obligations and liabilities in respect of maintenance and repair under any covenant or agreement, whether expressed or implied, and all the other circumstances of the case.
(5) When a clearance order has become operative, no land to which the order applies shall be used for building purposes, or otherwise developed, except subject to such restrictions and conditions, if any, as the local authority may think fit to impose:
Provided that an owner who is aggrieved by a restriction or condition so imposed on the user of his land, or by a subsequent refusal of the authority to cancel or modify any such restriction or condition, may at any time appeal to the Minister, who shall make such order in the matter as he thinks proper, and the Minister's decision shall be final.
A person who commences, or causes to be commenced, any work in contravention of a restriction or condition imposed under this subsection shall, on summary conviction, be liable to a penalty not exceeding forty shillings, and to a further penalty not exceeding ten pounds in respect of each day during which the work exists in such a form and state as to contravene the restriction or condition.
3 Purchase by local authority of land surrounded by or adjoining clearance area.
3. Where as respects any area declared by them to be a clearance area a local authority determine to purchase any land comprised in the area, they may purchase also any land which is surrounded by the clearance area and the acquisition of which is reasonably necessary for the purpose of securing a cleared area of convenient shape and dimensions, and any adjoining land the acquisition of which is reasonably necessary for the satisfactory development or user of the cleared area.
4 Provisions with respect to property belonging to a local authority within or adjacent to a clearance area.
4. A local authority when declaring an area to be a clearance area may include in that area, as defined by them, any land which they have previously acquired with the intention of demolishing the buildings thereon, either under section fifty-four of the Housing Act, 1925(in this Act referred to as ‘the principal Act’), (which empowers an authority to acquire in advance land in an area proposed for inclusion in an improvement or reconstruction scheme) or under section sixty-three of that Act (which empowers an authority to acquire land for the purposes of their powers and duties in connection with the provision of houses for the working classes), and where any such land of the authority is included in a clearance area or, being land surrounded by or adjoining a clearance area, might have been purchased by the authority under section three of this Act had it not previously been acquired by them, the provisions of this Act shall apply in relation to that land as if it had been purchased by the authority as being land comprised in the clearance area or, as the case may be, as being land surrounded by or adjoining the clearance area.
5 Treatment of clearance area.
(1) A local authority who have under this Part of this Act purchased any land comprised in, or surrounded by, or adjoining, a clearance area shall, so soon as may be, cause every building thereon to be vacated and subject to compliance with any provision contained in a compulsory purchase order with respect to the carrying out of re-housing operations shall deal with...
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