Housing (Amendment) Act, 1952

PART IV.

Housing of the Working Classes.

Amendment of section 29 of Act of 1948.

28.—(1) Section 29 of the Act of 1948 is hereby amended by the substitution of the following for subsection (2):—

“(2) Regulations under this section shall provide that in the letting of houses regard shall be had to the character, industry, occupation, family circumstances and existing housing conditions of the applicants and subject thereto first preference in the letting of houses which are not reserved houses shall, wherever practicable, be given to persons displaced from reserved houses, and second preference shall, wherever practicable, be given to persons with families living—

(i) in overcrowded conditions where one or more than one member of the family is suffering from tuberculosis;

(ii) in one-roomed dwellings where one or more than one member of the family is suffering from tuberculosis or where one or more than one member of the family (exclusive of the parents) has attained the age of twelve years; or

(iii) in a dwelling which has been condemned as unfit for human habitation.

(3) The letting by a housing authority and the commissioners of a town under this section of houses to families living in overcrowded conditions shall be deemed, for the purposes of section 6 of the Act of 1932, to be operations of a local authority under the Housing of the Working Classes Acts.

(4) Conditions shall, for the purposes of this section, be deemed to be overcrowded, at any time when the number of persons ordinarily sleeping in a house intended or used for occupation by the working classes, and the number of rooms in the house either—

(a) are such that any two of those persons, being persons twelve years old or more of opposite sexes and not being persons living together as husband and wife, must sleep in the same room; or

(b) are such that the free air space, in any room used as a sleeping apartment, for any person is less than four hundred cubic feet (the height of the room, if it exceeds eight feet, being taken to be eight feet, for the purpose of calculating free air space).”

(2) Section 29 of the Act of 1948 as amended by subsection (1) of this section shall not apply to houses provided by virtue of section 31 of this Act.