Housing of the Working Classes Act 1890
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The Housing of the Working Classes Act 1890 (53 & 54 Vict. c. 70) was an act of the Parliament of the United Kingdom.
The act followed the Housing of the Working Classes Act 1885 (48 & 49 Vict. c. 72), which had empowered local authorities to condemn slum housing as a public health measure, but no more. This act extended their powers, allowing them to also purchase the land and finance new housing.
The act
The act is made up of four parts and seven schedules:
- Part 1: Unhealthy Areas
- Part 2: Unhealthy Dwellings
- Part 3: Working Class Lodging Houses
- Part 4: Supplemental
- First Schedule: A list of the names of relevant authorities
- Second Schedule: Provisions for compulsory purchase
- Third Schedule: Provisions for closing premises
- Fourth and Fifth Schedule: A collection of forms to be used in applying the act
- Sixth Schedule: Lists required byelaws that authorities need to enact.[1]
Implications
This gave London County Council the legal power to compulsory buy land out of area and to construct tenements and housing estates. The powers under part 3 were extensive: allowing the council to:
- lease land for the erection thereon of workmen's dwellings
- itself undertake the erection of dwellings or the improvement or reconstruction of existing dwellings
- fit up, furnish and maintain lodging working classes
- make any necessary by-laws and regulations for the management and use of the lodging houses
- sell dwellings or lodging houses established for seven years or upwards under Part III. of the Act whenever such dwellings or lodging houses are deemed by the Council and the Local Government Board to be unnecessary or too expensive to keep up.[2]
Subsequent developments
The Housing of the Working Classes Act 1894 (57 & 58 Vict. c. 55) amended the financial provisions of part 2 of the principal act.[2]
The Housing of the Working Classes Act 1900 (63 & 64 Vict. c. 59) extended these powers to all authorities other than rural district councils.[2]
The whole act was repealed for England and Wales by section 136 of, and the sixth schedule to, the Housing Act 1925 (15 & 16 Geo. 5. c. 14) and for Scotland by section 120 of, and the sixth schedule to, the Housing (Scotland) Act 1925 (15 & 16 Geo. 5. c. 15), which both came into force on 1 July 1925.[3][4]
