Housing (Underground Rooms)

– in the House of Commons at 12:00 am on 17 December 1958.

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3.48 p.m.

Photo of Mr Robert Jenkins Mr Robert Jenkins , Camberwell Dulwich

I beg to move, That leave be given to bring in a Bill to make provision as to the circumstances in which underground rooms are to be deemed for the purposes of section eighteen of the Housing Act, 1957, to be unfit for human habitation and, in connection therewith, to validate certain orders made with respect to underground rooms It is not suggested that my proposed Bill should apply to Scotland or Northern Ireland. Its principle purpose is to restore to local authorities powers which they had under the Housing Act, 1936, to close insanitary basements. I will say at once that the Bill has the full support of the Association of Municipal Corporations and of a considerable number of hon. Members on both sides of the House; and I have reason to suppose that my right hon. Friend the Minister of Housing and Local Government is likely to give it his blessing.

An example of the value of the power in the 1936 Act is given by the experience of the Royal Borough of Kensington which, from 1936 until 1939, closed 2,700 basements in North Kensington, to the great benefit of the inhabitants thereof. I realise that an important debate is to follow immediately after this matter has been dealt with, and, in the short time at my disposal, I propose to give no details but merely to outline the objects of the proposed Bill.

First, the principal purpose is to restore a useful public health provision which has been unintentionally lost. In the second place, I put to the House the point that Section 12(2) of the Housing Act, 1936, provides a formula by which local authorities could close underground rooms which were less than 7 feet high or which failed to comply with the local byelaws. That Act enabled local authorities to deal with single rooms which were unfit for human habitation. The reason why the Bill is being proposed today is that on 7th May, 1957, judgment was given in the Court of Appeal against the Lambeth Borough Council consequent upon an interpretation of Section 9 of the Housing Rent and Repairs Act, 1954. This interpretation, while creating uncertainty, had the effect of modifying Section 12(2) of the Housing Act, 1936, and local authorities up and down the country find themselves hamstrung in trying to carry out their functions.

Housing legislation was consolidated in the Housing Act, 1957, and this Measure was before Parliament at about the time of the Court of Appeal judgment. It was, therefore, more or less unavoidable that in these circumstances this ambiguity was not removed. It is fair to say that all those who have knowledge of this subject would have thought that it would have been removed.

The position, therefore, is that doubt has been cast upon the validity of any closing order made by local authorities since 1954 and also on the regulations which the Minister sanctioned during that period. The proposed Bill is designed to validate orders made between 1954 and the date on which the Bill comes into force. It seeks to rectify a defect in existing public health legislation which could not have been foreseen, and I assure the House that if the Bill is passed nobody will be adversely affected.

Finally, the Bill can have the confidence of the House and be passed as a simple Measure which is urgently needed to ensure that unhealthy underground rooms can continue to be closed with the minimum delay. I ask leave to introduce it in the interests of good local government and to protect tenants who without its authority may be condemned to live in unsavoury and insanitary conditions for many years to come.

Question put and agreed to.

Bill ordered to be brought in by Mr. Robert Jenkins, Mr. David Jones, Sir John Smyth, Mr. Rippon, Mr. Marcus Lipton, Mr. Marlowe, Mr. John Barter, Brigadier Terence Clarke, Mr. Farey-Jones, and Mr. Ridsdale.