THIRD READING. (Hansard, 6 July 1876)

THE DUKE OF RICHMOND AND GORDON,

in moving that the Bill be now read a third time, said, he desired to refer to the objections made by his noble Friend (the Earl of Shaftesbury) on a former evening, to the effect that no houses should be pulled down in the locality without due notice to the inhabitants, in order that they might have sufficient time to provide themselves with dwellings before being displaced. He concurred in the remarks of his noble Friend, but thought he should be able to remove any objections that existed in his mind. His noble Friend would see that by the 11th section of the Artizans' Dwellings Act, where any buildings were required to be pulled down in carrying out any scheme, the local authorities were bound to give the inhabitants 13 weeks' public notice before the pulling down of their dwellings was commenced; and if such notice were not given the inhabitants were empowered to make application to a justice of the peace, or to the Secretary of State for the Home Department. Therefore, no pulling down of houses could take place until the inhabitants of them had the legal notice provided in the Artizans' Dwellings Act. Thus, in the first place, there must be notice given; and, in the second, the houses to be built must be in accordance with the rules of the Metropolitan Board of Works, and—in reference to some further remarks of his noble Friend—they must be arranged so as to have a proper water supply, and in accordance with sanitary regulations as provided by the 9th section of the Artizans' Dwellings Act.

§ THE EARL OF SHAFTESBURY

thanked the noble Duke for the attention he had given to the suggestions he had thrown out the other evening. He should have been better pleased to have seen distinct provision made that no houses should be pulled down until it had been ascertained that there was lodging accommodation in the neighbourhood, and that the number of water cisterns and dust bins should be specified, for it must not be lost sight of that these houses would probably be run up very high, and if the poor people living at the top had to come down to the centre for every drop of water they wanted, it would be a serious strain upon them, and, what was as bad, would involve a considerable loss of time. Furthermore, it was most desirable that every requisite sanitary arrangement should be provided on each story. He would also urge that, instead of a general notice, notice of displacement should be served at each of the houses proposed to be removed, and that, as had been the case in Glasgow, the residents should not be disturbed until it had been ascertained that lodgings were available within reasonable distance.