Housing Act 1957

55 Duty of local authority to secure re-development

(1) If the local authority for any urban area (that is to say, the City of London, the rest of the administrative county of London, a county borough, a non-county borough, or an urban district) are satisfied, as a result of an inspection carried out under section seventy-six of this Act or otherwise, that their district comprises any area in which the following conditions exist, that is to say—

(a) that the area contains fifty or more working-class houses;

(b) that at least one-third of the working-class houses in the area are overcrowded, or unfit for human habitation and not capable at a reasonable expense of being rendered so fit, or so arranged as to be congested;

(c) that the industrial and social conditions of their district are such that the area should be used to a substantial extent for housing the working classes ; and

(d) that it is expedient in connection with the provision of housing accommodation for the working classes that the area should be re-developed as a whole;

it shall be the duty of the local authority to cause the area to be defined on a map, and to pass a resolution declaring the area so defined to be a proposed re-development area.

(2) As soon as may be after a local authority have passed a resolution under the foregoing subsection, they shall send a copy of the resolution and of the map to the Minister, and shall publish in one or more local newspapers circulating in their district a notice stating that the resolution has been passed and naming a place within their district where a copy of the resolution and of the map may be inspected.

(3) In so far as suitable accommodation is not available for persons who will be displaced from working-class houses in the carrying out of re-development in accordance with a re-development plan, it shall be the duty of the local authority to provide, or to secure the provision of, such accommodation in advance of the displacements from time to time becoming necessary as the re-development proceeds.