Housing (Financial Provisions) Act 1924
| Jurisdiction | UK Non-devolved |
| Citation | 1924 c. 35 |
| Year | 1924 |
Housing (Financial Provisions) Act, 1924
(14 & 15 Geo. 5.) CHAPTER 35.
An Act to amend the financial provisions of the Housing, &c. Act, 1923, and for other purposes incidental thereto or connected therewith.
[7th August 1924]
Be 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:—
1 Extension of 13 & 14 Geo. 5. c. 24. to houses completed before 1st October 1939.
(1) Subject to the provisions of this Act, sections one and three of the Housing, &c. Act, 1923 (which relate to contributions by the Minister of Health to the expenses of local authorities in assisting the construction of houses and to the expenses of public utility societies and other bodies in building houses), shall extend to houses which are provided in pursuance of proposals approved by the Minister and are completed before the first day of October, nineteen hundred and thirty-nine, and so much of that Act as limits the operation of those sections to houses completed before the first day of October, nineteen hundred and twenty-five, or the first day of June, nineteen hundred and twenty-six, shall cease to have effect.
(2) The following paragraph shall be substituted for paragraph (b ) of subsection (1) of section one of the Housing, &c. Act, 1923:—
‘(b ) towards any expenses incurred by the local authority in the provision of such houses by the local authority themselves.’
Where a local authority purchase any such houses as are referred to in the said paragraph for the purposes of Part III. of the Housing of the Working Classes Act, 1890, the houses shall not be treated as houses provided by the local authority themselves within the meaning of the said Act of 1923 or this Act if the houses are houses which have been completed before the passing of this Act or have been occupied prior to the purchase.
2 Increased Government contributions in case of houses which are subject to special conditions.
(1) Where, in pursuance of proposals approved by the Minister after the passing of this Act, any houses are provided by a local authority themselves or by a society, body of trustees or company within the meaning of section three of the said Act, or expenses are incurred by a local authority in promoting the construction of any houses in accordance with section two of the said Act as amended by this Act, then, if the houses are subject to special conditions as hereinafter provided in this Act, the contribution which the Minister may make or undertake to make in respect of each such house, instead of being a contribution of six pounds payable annually for a period of twenty years—
(a ) shall be a contribution of nine pounds or, if the house is situated in an agricultural parish, twelve pounds ten shillings; and
(b ) shall be payable annually for a period of forty years;
and the said Act shall have effect accordingly.
Provided that, where the contributions are made towards expenses incurred by a local authority in promoting the construction of houses in accordance with section two of the said Act as amended by this Act, the said Act in its application to any of those houses shall have effect with the following modifications, namely:—
(i) In the provision in subsection (1) of section one which requires that a contribution shall be reduced in certain contingencies, nine pounds, or in the case of a house situated in an agricultural parish twelve pounds ten shillings, shall be substituted for six pounds, and forty years shall be substituted for twenty years:
(ii) Paragraph (a ) of subsection (3) of section two shall not apply, and the following paragraph shall be substituted for paragraph (b ) of the said subsection:
‘(b ) Undertake to pay such annual sum as may be specified in the proposals for a period not exceeding forty years to the person for the time being in receipt of the rent payable by a tenant to whom the house is let, or, in the case of a house not so let, to the person by whom the rates on the house are payable.’
Provided also that in any case where proposals are submitted to the Minister which, in consequence of the adoption of new materials or new methods of construction, involve a reduction in the estimated annual expenses to be incurred in connection with each house substantially greater than the equivalent of four pounds ten shillings per annum for forty years, the Minister may reduce the contribution by such amount as he shall think just and reasonable, but so nevertheless that the contribution shall not be reduced to such an extent as to leave any part of such estimated annual expenses to be borne by the local rate or by the said society, body of trustees, or company, as the case may be.
(2) For the purposes of this Act, a house shall be deemed to be situated in an agricultural parish if at the beginning of the financial year in which the proposal for the provision of the house is approved by the Minister—
(a ) the net annual value of the agricultural land in the parish in which the house is situated, as shown in the county rate basis then in force, exceeds twenty-five per cent. of the total net annual value of that parish as shown in the same basis (the value of all property in the occupation of the Crown being taken into account); and
(b ) the population of the parish according to the last published census return of the Registrar-General, is less than fifty persons per hundred acres.
Any question as to whether a parish is or is not an agricultural parish within the meaning of this subsection shall be determined by the Minister, whose decision shall be final.
(3) In the case of any houses situated in an agricultural parish which are provided by a county council or any such board or body as is mentioned in subsection (3) of section eight of the Housing, Town Planning, &c. Act, 1919 , for persons in their employment or paid by them or by a statutory committee, this section shall apply in like manner as it applies in the case of houses not situated in an agricultural parish.
(4) Houses provided in pursuance of proposals approved by the Minister before the passing of this Act, if the contract for the construction of the houses was entered into or, in the case of houses constructed otherwise than under contract, the construction was begun after the first day of February, nineteen hundred and twenty-four, may, for the purposes of this section, if the Minister so directs, be treated as if the approval had been given after the passing of this Act, notwithstanding that the houses do not comply in every respect with the conditions imposed by or under this Act.
(5) Where, in pursuance of proposals approved by the Minister under this Act, houses are provided by the common council of the city of London or by a metropolitan borough council, the London County Council may, in respect of any such house which is subject to special conditions, supplement any contribution made by the Minister in respect of such house to an extent not exceeding two pounds five shillings, payable annually for a period not exceeding forty years, and for the purposes of paragraph (e ) of subsection (1) of section three of this Act the amount of any such supplemental contribution shall be treated as if it were part of the expenses borne by the local rate in the city or borough.
3 Special conditions.
(1) Houses provided by a local authority themselves shall be deemed to be subject to special conditions if the local authority undertake, in accordance with rules made by the Minister and approved by the Treasury, that the following conditions will be complied with in relation to the houses:—
(a ) that, subject to the following conditions, the houses shall be let by the local authority for occupation to tenants who intend to reside therein:
(b ) that it shall be a term of every such letting that the tenant shall not assign, sublet, or otherwise part with the possession of the house, or any part thereof, except with the consent in writing of the local authority or some person authorised by them in that behalf, and that such consent shall not be given unless it is shown that no payment other than rent has been or is to be received by the tenant in consideration of the assignment, subletting, or other transaction;
(c ) that if the local authority desire to sell or (save by such lettings as aforesaid) otherwise dispose of the houses the sale or disposal shall not be effected except upon and subject to such stipulations, if any, as the Minister thinks proper, for the reduction of the amount or the curtailment of the duration of any contribution payable by the Minister in respect of the house, or for both reduction and curtailment, but so nevertheless that the contribution in respect of any house sold before the expiration of a period of twenty years from the date when that contribution first became payable shall not be reduced by more than three pounds or, in the case of a house in an agricultural parish, by more than six pounds ten shillings, and the duration thereof shall not be curtailed by more than twenty years;
(d ) that a fair wages clause which complies with the requirements of any resolution of the House of Commons applicable to contracts of Government departments and for the time being in force shall be inserted in all contracts for the construction of the houses;
(e ) that the rents charged in respect of the houses shall not in the aggregate exceed the total amount of the rents that would be payable if the houses were let at the appropriate normal rents charged in respect of...
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