ABSTRACT
The Housing Act made improvement grants available for urban as well as rural housing, on condition that the improved houses had an expected life of thirty years or more. The grants available under the 1949 Act were for improvements costing between £100 and £600, and were at a maximum of a half of the approved cost. Discretionary grants are given for dwellings which can be brought up to a defined standard comparable with that of a modern house—given due allowance for age and limitations in design, layout and construction. The purpose of the standard grants is to encourage the improvement up to a basic condition of houses which are not suitable for improvement to the higher Twelve-Point Standard. Twenty-two improvement areas had been approved by March 31, 1964, comprising 4,286 houses. The new powers enable local authorities to compel owners to improve tenanted dwellings in ‘improvement areas’, tenement blocks and, at the request of the tenant, elsewhere.
