Housing (Amendment) Act, 1952

Amendment of section 35 of Act of 1948.

34.—(1) Section 35 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 cottages regard shall be had to the character, industry, occupation, family circumstances and existing housing conditions of the applicants and subject thereto first preference shall, wherever practicable, be given to applicants who are—

(a) persons normally engaged in doing agricultural work for hire on the land of some other person and whose principal means of living is such work,

(b) men normally engaged in doing agricultural work on the land of relatives with whom they reside, or

(c) herdsmen,

and second preference shall, wherever practicable, be given to applicants 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) 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 cottage intended or used for occupation by the working classes or agricultural labourers, and the number of rooms in the cottage 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 35 of the Act of 1948 as amended by subsection (1) of this section shall not apply to houses provided by virtue of section 35 of this Act.