§ 80. Brigadier Prior-Palmerasked the Minister of Housing and Local Government to what extent the new model building byelaws have been adopted by local authorities.
§ Mr. H. MacmillanOf 1,336 local authorities whose building byelaws expired this year, 1,328 have adopted new byelaws based on the model. The new byelaws are either already in force or will shortly be in force.
§ 81. Brigadier Prior-Palmerasked the Minister of Housing and Local Government when the model building byelaws were last revised; and what were the principal changes made.
§ Mr. H. MacmillanAn authoritative and fully representative committee was appointed in June, 1951, to advise on the preparation of new model building bye-laws, in view of the great advances which had taken place in building methods and technical knowledge since 1939, and which had made the existing byelaws out-of-date. As a result, a new series was published in November, 1952; and a further edition appeared in July, 1953.
The main object of the new series has been to allow the utmost possible freedom in building methods and the use of new materials. This has been achieved by expressing the constructional parts of the byelaws in terms of the functional requirements of the building without requiring any particular material to be used. Materials and methods of using them which conform to British standards or codes of practice are sufficient compliance with the requirements of the byelaws.