Clearance Area

Clearance area. Under the Housing Acts, 1930-35, substantially reproduced by the Housing Act,1936, the local authority may (see ss. 25 et seq., 1936 Act) declare any area in their district to be a clearance area where they are satisfied that the houses there are by reason of disrepair or sanitary defects or bad arrangement either of the houses or streets dangerous to the health of the inhabitants in the area, and after marking off on a map of the area and excluding from the area any building which is not unfit for human habitation or dangerous and injurious to health, they may, by a clearance order obtained from the Minister of Health, see Errington v. Minister of Health, 1935 (1) KB 249, and subject to formalities under ss. 51-53 of the H. Act, 1936, and if the owner has not obtained a certificate of re-conditioning fitness, order the demolition of the buildings in the area or purchase the land compulsorily or by agreement, or themselves secure the demolition of the buildings. A limited compensation is provided for under the Acts.