Housing Act 1957

Re-development Areas

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.

56 Re-development plan

(1) Within six months after a local authority have passed a resolution under the last foregoing section, or within such extended period as the Minister may allow, the authority shall prepare and submit to the Minister a re-development plan indicating the manner in which it is intended that the defined area should be laid out and the land therein used, whether for existing purposes or for purposes requiring the carrying out of re-development thereon, and in particular the land intended to be used for the provision of houses for the working classes, for streets and for open spaces.

(2) In the preparation of the plan the local authority shall have regard to the provisions of any development plan within the meaning of the Town and Country Planning Act, 1947, relating to the defined area or land in the neighbourhood thereof.

(3) Before submitting the plan to the Minister the local authority shall—

(a) publish in one or more local newspapers circulating in their district a notice stating that the plan has been prepared and is about to be submitted to the Minister, naming a place within their district where the plan may be inspected, and specifying the time within which, and the manner in which, objections can be made; and

(b) serve a notice to the like effect on every owner, lessee and occupier (except tenants for a month or any period less than a month) of land in the defined area and on all statutory undertakers owning apparatus in that area.

For the purposes of this subsection an occupier being a statutory tenant within the meaning of Part II of the Housing Repairs and Rents Act, 1954, shall be deemed to be a tenant for a period less than a month.

(4) If no objection is duly made by any of the persons upon whom notices are required to be served, or if all objections so made are withdrawn, the Minister may, if he thinks fit, approve the plan, either without modification or with such modifications as he thinks fit (including, if he thinks fit, the alteration of the defined area so as to exclude land therefrom, but not so as to add land thereto), but in any other case he shall, before approving the plan, cause a public local inquiry to be held and shall consider any objection not withdrawn and the report of the person who held the inquiry, and may thereafter approve the plan with or without any such modifications as aforesaid.

(5) On receipt of notice of the Minister's approval the local authority shall publish in one or more local newspapers circulating in their district a notice stating that the re-development plan has been approved and naming a place within their district where a copy thereof may be inspected, and shall serve a like notice on every person who, having given notice to the Minister of his objection to the plan, appeared at the public local inquiry in support of his objection.

(6) Where, after a re-development plan has been approved, it appears to the local authority that any land in the re-development area (that is to say the defined area or so much thereof as is comprised in the plan as approved) ought to be re-developed or used otherwise than as indicated in the plan, the authority shall prepare and submit to the Minister a new plan as respects that land, and the provisions of this section with respect to publication, service of notices and approval by the Minister shall have effect in relation to the new plan, with the substitution of references to the new plan and to the land comprised therein for references to the re-development plan and to the defined area.

(7) The provisions of the Fourth Schedule to this Act shall have effect with respect to the validity and date of operation of the Minister's approval of a re-development plan or of a new plan.

(8) In the following provisions of this Act references to redevelopment or use in accordance with a re-development plan shall be construed as references to re-development or use in accordance with a re-development plan approved under this section or, in the case of land comprised in a new plan approved under this section, in accordance with the new plan.

57 Purchase of land for purposes of re-development

(1) When the Minister's approval of a re-development plan has become operative, the local authority may with the approval of the Minister purchase by agreement, or may be authorised by means of an order made and submitted to the Minister and confirmed by him in accordance with Parts I and II of the Third Schedule to this Act to purchase compulsorily,—

(a) land in the re-development area ; and

(b) any land outside that area which they may require for the purpose of providing accommodation for persons occupying premises within that area which they have purchased or agreed to purchase, or in respect of which they have submitted compulsory purchase orders.

(2) It shall be the duty of the local authority within the appropriate period specified in this subsection either to enter into agreements with the approval of the Minister for the purchase, or to make and submit to the Minister orders for the compulsory purchase, of all land in the re-development area other than land in respect of which the local authority have within that period made arrangements with other persons for the carrying out of re-development, or for securing the use of the land, in accordance with the re-development plan.

The appropriate period for the purposes of this subsection shall be—

(a) in the case of land shown in the re-development plan as intended for the provision of houses for the working classes, six months from the date when the Minister's approval of the re-development plan becomes operative;

(b) in the case of other land in the re-development area, two years from that date;

or, in either case, such extended period as the Minister may, on the application of the local authority, allow in respect of any land.

(3) Where a local authority submit to the Minister an order for the compulsory purchase under this section of land which comprises or consists of a house which in their opinion is unfit for human habitation and not capable at reasonable expense of being rendered so fit, the order as submitted shall be in a form prescribed for the purpose of indicating that the house is in that condition, and, if the Minister is of opinion that the house is properly so indicated, the order as confirmed may authorise the authority to purchase the house as being in that condition.

(4) The provisions of the Fourth Schedule to this Act shall have effect with respect to the validity and date of operation of a compulsory purchase order made under this section.

(5) Nothing in this section shall authorise the compulsory acquisition of any land which is the property of a local authority or is the property of statutory undertakers, having been acquired by them for the purposes of their undertaking, and the obligations imposed on the local authority by subsection (2) of this section shall not apply with respect to any such land.

(6) Land purchased by a local authority under this section for the provision of houses for the working classes shall be deemed to have been acquired by them under Part V of this Act.

(7) Land purchased by a local authority under this section otherwise than for the provision of houses for the working classes may, with the consent of the Minister, be sold or leased to any person, or exchanged for other land which the local authority have power to acquire either with or without paying or receiving money for equality of exchange, subject, in the case of land in the re-development area, to conditions for securing that it shall be re-developed or used in accordance with the redevelopment plan.

(8) When the Minister's approval of a re-development plan has become operative and the plan comprises any land of the local authority, the provisions of this Act shall apply in relation to that land as if it had been land in the re-development area purchased by the authority under this section.

(9) Nothing in the Rent Acts shall prevent possession being obtained of any house possession of which is required for the purpose of enabling re-development in accordance with a redevelopment plan to be proceeded with.

58 Local authority for re-development areas in London

As respects the administrative county of London other than the City of London the London County Council shall be the local authority for the purposes of the provisions of this Part of this Act relating to re-development areas:

Provided that where a metropolitan borough council give notice in writing to the London County Council that in their opinion their district comprises an area (the limits of which shall be specified) which ought to be defined as a proposed re-development area, and that they intend to pass such a resolution as is mentioned in subsection (1) of section fifty-five of this Act, the metropolitan borough council shall, as respects that area and subject as hereinafter provided, be the local authority for the purposes of the provisions of this Part of this Act relating to re-development areas—

(a) if the London County Council within two months after the date of the receipt by them of such notice do not notify the metropolitan borough council that they intend themselves to deal with the area as a re-development area or as part of a re-development area, or as a clearance area or part of a clearance area, or that they propose to acquire the area or any part thereof as a site for the erection of houses for the working classes; or

(b) if the London County Council notify the metropolitan borough council that they do not so intend to deal with the area or any part thereof;

so, however, that—

(i) if a metropolitan borough council who become, in pursuance of this proviso, the local authority as respects that area do not submit to the Minister a re-development plan relating to that area within a period of two years after the date on which the metropolitan borough council so became the local authority, or such further period as may be approved by the Minister; or

(ii) if the Minister decides that the area is not a suitable one to be dealt with by the metropolitan borough council;

the metropolitan borough council shall cease to be, and the London County Council shall be, the local authority as aforesaid as respects that area without prejudice to the rights of the metropolitan borough council to give a further notice under this proviso to the London County Council.