HOUSING LAW

Housing Law



Housing Law

Introduction

The role of a trainer is to train a person who has been appointed as housing support officers in the best possible way. The most important aspect of training material is based on the basic understanding of housing law. The origin of housing law in England and Wales is also discussed in this report. The making of housing legislation in parliament and the rules of statutory interpretation used by a judge when this legislation has been enacted is also an important part of the report.

Making Of Housing Legislation In Parliment

Housing refers both to shelter in houses and to the provision of houses. It is the latter which has attracted historians, who have been particularly interested in tracing the provision of accommodation in response to population increases in towns and, above all, in cities. During the industrial revolution large increases in urban populations occurred because of migrations from the countryside and the reduction of the death rate. Housing was initially left to the open market. The provision of accommodation rested on a balance between the cost of building and what households could afford to spend on rents. Speculative builders often borrowed capital for construction from solicitors, who loaned them the money clients had deposited with them for returns which were said to be 'as safe as houses'. A limited number of houses were built by owner-occupiers who had borrowed money from the newly formed building societies (White Willock 2007,p. 45). Not all housing was of good quality and some landlords built cheap and often badly constructed buildings, which rapidly became slums because of overcrowding. These slums attracted the attention of Parliament, municipalities, and social reformers. The sanitary laws of the second half of the 19th cent. stipulated minimum standards for new dwellings. Liverpool corporation erected the first council housing in 1867 . However the provision of housing at public expense did not become government policy until the 20th cent. The slum clearance law of 1876 did not require local authorities to rehouse the homeless, although in towns where railways took powers to clear sites for stations and sidings they were compelled to provide alternative new houses elsewhere. Some philanthropic attempts were made to provide good housing for the poor, one of the most active being the Peabody Trust which erected flats in London.

Some industrial developments, for example, coal-mining and some manufacturing using water power, occurred in places where there was no previous settlement. Entrepreneurs provided accommodation for their workers. The quality varied greatly. High standards were adopted by Arkwright at Belper (Derbys.) in the 1780s and by Peter Greg at Styal (Ches.). In the 19th cent. model housing was provided by several industrialists, for example Titus Salt at Saltaire, Cadbury at Bournville (Birmingham), and in the 20th cent. Lever Brothers at Port Sunlight on Merseyside.

During the 20th cent. successive governments intervened in housing by making loan funds available to local authorities, by subsidies to builders, and by giving tax concessions to owner-occupiers purchasing their homes through ...