Housing Of The Working Classes - Definition - Law Dictionary Home Dictionary Definition housing-of-the-working-classes

Definition :

Housing of the working classes. The Housing Act, 1936 (26 Geo. 5, and 1 Edw. 8, c. 51), replaces with amendments the Housing Acts, 1925, 1930 and 1935, and consolidates the general law on the subject with some exceptions, chiefly relating to agricultural populations and needs, which are also provided for in unrepeated portions of the Acts of 1930 and 1935. Very wide powers are conferred on local authorities over the ownership of land and housing properties, and populations within their districts, enabling those authorities to make bye-laws for houses occupied or adaptable for the working classes; to effect the clearance, demolition, rebuilding, redevelopment or improvement of houses either singly or in whole areas and other-wise regulating sites or houses; to prevent over-crowding, and generally making it incumbent on these authorities to review and provide for the housing conditions of the working classes, and in addition giving powers of compulsory expropria-tion of private owners from any land subject only to the compensation available under Acquisition of Land (Assessment of Compensation) Act,1919, and as diminished by the 4th Sched. To the Act of 1936 or otherwise as provided by the Act. At the same time the powers of expropriation of any land which is not comprised in clearance, redevelopment or improvement areas, etc., do not extend over the property of a local authority or land required for the purposes of a statutory undertaking or being part of any park, garden or pleasure ground or otherwise required for the amenity or convenience of a house (s. 75), and see ss. 142-144 as to other restrictions upon acquisition of land. The Act of 1936 has mitigated some of the hardships to meritorious owners which arose out of the earlier legislation chiefly in regard to the retention of their property if reconditioned or redeveloped accord-ing to the requirements of local authorities (ss. 50 and 51). Under ss. 90-92, assistance may be given by local authorities or the Public Works Loan Commissioners to private owners and others desiring to erect or improve houses for the working classes, and s. 123 enables the Public Works Loan Commissioners to lend to local authorities any money which those authorities have power to borrow for those purposes, and the financial provisions (Part VI.) relate to Government contributions, contributions out of rates, borrowing monies, etc. The High Court, the Chancery Courts of Lancaster and Durham, and county courts are provided with powers and jurisdiction ancillary to the purposes of the Act (ss. 160-163). In regard to small houses, not necessarily working class houses, the Act of 1936, s. 2, replacing preceding enactments, provides an exception to the rule that there is no implied condition of fitness in the letting an unfurnished house. In a contract for letting of a small house or part of a house for habitation a condition is implied that at the commencement of the holding the house (or part) is in all respects reasonably fit for human habitation. As to the liability of the landlord where the tenant undertakes the repairs (fair wear and tear excepted), see Jones v. Geen, (1925) 1 KB 119. As to the necessity for notice, see Morgan v. Liverpool Corporation, (1927) 2 KB 131. The condition is implied only where the rent does not exceed, in London, 40l., or 26l. elsewhere in England and Wales. These provisions do not apply to a contract made before 31st July, 1923, in the case of houses let at more than 16l. per annum and situate out of the administrative County of London or a borough or district with a population of more than 50,000, or to leases for not less than three years where the lessee is under obligation to put in repair.

By s. 4, in the case of any house which is occupied or is of a type suitable for occupation by persons of the working classes, the name and address of the medical officer of health for the district and of the landlord or responsible person must be entered in the rent-book under penalty of a fine not exceeding forty shillings.

It may also be pointed out that for the special purposes of ss. 38 and 137 of the Act of 1936, the 11th Schedule defines a working man's dwelling as wholly or partly occupied by a person belonging to the working classes, and 'working class 'includes mechanics, artisans, labourers and others working for wages, hawkers, costar-mongers and persons not working for wages, but working at some trade or handicraft without employing others except members of their own family, and persons other than domestic servants, whose income in any case does not exceed an average of 3l. per week, and the families of any such persons who may be residing with them. The Act does not give any other or general definition of the working classes and working class houses or dwellings. The Act of 1936 does not extend to Scotland or Northern Ireland. See, further, CLEARANCE AREA; IMPROVE-MENT AREA; REDEVELOPMENT AREA; OVER-CROWDING; LANDLORD AND TENANT; and INCREASE OF RENT