Housing Act 1957

189 Interpretation

(1) In this Act, unless the context otherwise requires—

• " apparatus " means sewers, drains, culverts, water-courses, mains, pipes, valves, tubes, cables, wires, transformers, and other apparatus laid down or used for or in connection with the carrying, conveying or supplying to any premises of a supply of water, water for hydraulic power, gas or electricity, and standards and brackets carrying street lamps ;

• " building byelaws " includes byelaws made by any local authority under section one hundred and fifty-seven of the Public Health Act, 1875, or section sixty-one of the Public Health Act, 1936, with respect to new buildings, including the drainage thereof, and new streets, and any enactments in any local Acts dealing with the construction and drainage of new buildings and the laying out and construction of new streets, and any byelaws made with respect to such matters under any such local Act;

• " contributory place " has the same meaning as in the Public Health Act, 1936 ;

• " development corporation " means a development corporation established under the New Towns Act, 1946 ;

• " fit for human habitation " has the meaning assigned to it by sections four and five of this Act;

• " house " includes—

  (a)

  any yard, garden, outhouses, and apurtenances belonging thereto or usually enjoyed therewith, and

  (b)

  for the purposes of any provisions of this Act relating to the provision of housing accommodation, any part of a building which is occupied or intended to be occupied as a separate dwelling ;

• " housing association " means a society, body of trustees or company established for the purpose of, or amongst whose objects or powers are included those of, constructing, improving or managing or facilitating or encouraging the construction or improvement of, houses, being a society, body of trustees or company who do not trade for profit or whose constitution or rules prohibit the issue of any capital with interest or dividend exceeding the rate for the time being prescribed by the Treasury, whether with or without differentiation as between share and loan capital ;

• " housing trust " means a corporation or body of persons which by the terms of its constituent instrument, is required to devote the whole of its funds, including any surplus which may arise from its operations, to the provision of houses for persons the majority of whom are in fact members of the working classes, and to other purposes incidental thereto ;

• " land " includes any right over land ;

• " local government elector " has the meaning assigned to it by sub-paragraph (1) of paragraph 1 of the Eighth Schedule to the Representation of the People Act, 1949, as amended by the Electoral Registers Act, 1953 ;

• " official representation " has the meaning assigned to it by section one hundred and fifty-seven of this Act;

• " the Minister " means the Minister of Housing and Local Government;

• " owner ", in relation to any building or land, means a person other than a mortgagee not in possession, who is for the time being entitled to dispose of the fee simple of the building or land, whether in possession or in. reversion, and includes also a person holding or entitled to the rents and profits of the building or land under a lease or agreement, the unexpired term whereof exceeds three years;

• " the Rent Acts " means the Increase of Rent and Mortgage Interest Restrictions Acts, 1920 to 1939 ;

• " statutory undertakers " means any persons authorised by any enactment or by an order, rule or regulation made under an enactment, to construct, work or carry on a railway, canal, inland navigation, dock, harbour, tramway, gas, electricity, water or other public undertaking;

• " street " includes any court, alley, passage, square, or row of houses, whether a thoroughfare or not.

(2) In this Act references to a local authority where not limited by the context to references to the local authority for the purposes of this Act or of any enactment in this Act or of any other enactment relating to housing, unless the context otherwise requires include references to the Common Council of the City of London, the London County Council, a metropolitan borough council and the council of a borough, urban district or rural district.

(3) Save where the context otherwise requires, references in this Act to any enactment shall be construed as references to that enactment as amended by any other enactment.