I beg to move, "That the Clause be read a Second time."

I do so with a view to instituting a serious house-to-house inspection every year. The Housing and Town Planning Act, 1909, definitely states, in Section 17, that local authorities may cause to be made from time to time inspections in their district. One of the objects of this new Clause is to fix a definite time within which inspections shall be made. We feel that the backward authorities will rot carry into effect the powers given to them in the Act of 1909, because those powers are not obligatory. This Clause will make it compulsory for all authorities to make their inspections once a year. Not only does it state that all dwelling-houses shall be inspected in order to see whether they are in a sanitary condition, but it also provides, where necessary, that "part of any dwelling-house" may be inspected. This makes the provision more comprehensive. If the houses were inspected once a year we should at least be laying the foundation for better conditions of life for our people. We should be compelling property owners to keep their houses in better sanitary condition. It may be said there is no reason for this proposal, but those who have served on local authorities know the difficulties of getting these inspections made and also of getting notices served on landlords who are not carrying out these inspections. Every house under a local authority-ought to be inspected and reported upon once a year. I have in mind a quite recent incident where a fairly large authority in a Lancashire town made an inspection of the whole of their area. The result spread a sort of horror throughout the people in that area.

I am not going to say it was any worse or any better than in other parts of the country, but the result of the inspection was such that it at least awakened the whole of the people in that particular borough to a sense of their responsibility. The inspection revealed that the average number of persons living in one house was 51. There were sixteen houses with one room only, 642 houses with one living room and one sleeping room, over 3,000 houses with one living room and two sleeping rooms, and nearly 800 houses with one living room and three sleeping rooms. That is the kind of thing we want exposed. There are a large number of these houses absolutely unfitted for habitation, and the report said that there were 1.375 without through ventilation and otherwise insanitary. By the adoption of this Clause we should be giving power to the local authorities and making it obligatory on them to carry out inspections. This measure has been too long delayed, and the phrase "may be" ought to be removed from every Act of Parliament relating to the housing of the people. The inspection must be compulsory or it will not be done at all. It will also take away the desire of many owners of slum property to become members of the local authority with a view to retarding the operations of the local medical officer of health and the sanitary inspector. These officials ought to be given all the confidence necessary, and people who possess houses ought to keep them in a condition reasonably fit for habitation.