HC Deb 14 February 1884 vol 284 cc869-71
SIR R. ASSHETON CROSS

asked the President of the Local Government Board, Whether his attention has been called to the Report of the Committee on the subject of Artizans' and Labourers 'Dwellings, 1882; and, whether it is his intention to bring in a Bill, without delay, to confer upon the local authorities, in places near London, but outside the jurisdiction of the Metro- politan Board of Works, additional powers with regard to new buildings, as unanimously recommended by that Committee?

SIR CHARLES W. DILKE

Sir, the Select Committee on Artizans' and Labourers' Dwellings recommended that many of the sanitary provisions of the Metropolitan Building Acts be at once extended to the suburbs under the control of the several sanitary authorities. This recommendation appears to have been made on the assumption that in the districts described as the suburbs the existing law as to the construction of buildings is, in the matter of sanitary details, insufficient and inferior to that applicable to the Metropolitan area. The evidence submitted to the Committee on the subject was of a vague and meagre character. It does not appear that any members or officers of the local authorities in the suburbs were examined as to the statutory provisions and by-laws in force in their districts and the action of the authorities with regard to them. The urban authorities in the suburbs are, by the Public Health Act, empowered to make by-laws as to the structure of walls, foundations, roofs, and chimneys of buildings, for securing stability and the prevention of fires; and for purposes of health, as to the space about buildings, to secure a free circulation of air, as to the ventilation and drainage of buildings, as to water-closets, ashpits, &c, and as to the closing of buildings unfit for human habitation. The by-laws may be enforced by penalty, and, in certain cases, the alteration or pulling down of work done in contravention of the by-laws. Rural sanitary authorities may be invested with similar powers where necessary. Building bylaws have been made in the several urban sanitary districts in the suburbs of the Metropolis, and with regard to several of the parishes in the rural districts in the suburbs. The Local Government Board in 1877 issued a model series of by-laws for the guidance of sanitary authorities, and in all cases in which by-laws have since been made they have been either wholly or to a great extent based on this model. These by-laws, so far as they relate to sanitary matters, have a much wider range than those in the Metropolitan Building Acts and by-laws of the Metropolitan Board of Works, and are superior to those provisions. The provisions in these bylaws, especially as to open spaces about buildings, as to ventilation, drainage, and the details of the construction of water-closets, ashpits, &c, are much more precise and stringent than the regulations in force in the Metropolis. Looking to the powers which sanitary authorities in the suburbs possess with regard to sanitary details in the construction of buildings, it docs not appear to be necessary to extend to the suburbs any provision of the Metropolitan Building Acts.

MR. A. J. BALFOUR

May I ask whether the model by-laws will be laid on the Table?

SIR CHARLES W. DILKE

I shall have no objection to present them to the House; but they are only one set of an immense number issued by the Local Government Board.

SIR R. ASSHETON CROSS

Am I to understand that the right hon. Gentleman thinks the state of things outside the Metropolitan Board of Works district is satisfactory, not as regards the by-laws, but as regards the buildings?

SIR CHARLES W. DILKE

That embraces a very much wider question—that is, of the composition and power of the local authorities to enforce those by-laws. I fear I cannot answer the right hon. Gentleman without introducing matters of debate; but my own impression is that an improvement of the local government throughout the country is necessary to deal with the subject.