Housing Repairs and Rents Act 1954

16Amendments of Housing Act, 1949

(1)Notwithstanding anything in paragraph (a) of subsection (2) of section fifteen of the Housing Act, 1949, or in paragraph (a) of subsection (3) of section twenty of that Act (which preclude the approval by the Minister of improvement proposals, or the approval by a local authority of an application for an improvement grant, unless the period for which the dwellings concerned are likely to provide satisfactory housing accommodation is not less than thirty years), the Minister or a local authority, as the case may be, may approve any such proposals or application if satisfied that the said period is likely to be more than fifteen years and that it is expedient in all the circumstances that the proposals or application should be approved.

(2)Paragraph (c) of subsection (3) of the said section twenty (which precludes the approval by a local authority of an application for an improvement grant unless the applicant has an absolute interest in the land or a leasehold interest with not less than thirty years to run) shall have effect as if for the reference to a period of not less than thirty years there were substituted a reference to whichever is the shorter of the following two periods, that is to say—

(a)thirty years; or

(b)a period equal to that for which the dwellings concerned will provide satisfactory housing accommodation.

(3)Where an application for an improvement grant is approved under the said section twenty in respect of a dwelling which in the opinion of the local authority is not likely to provide satisfactory housing accommodation for a period exceeding twenty years from the completion of the works, the authority may by order direct that in relation to that dwelling subsection (1) of section twenty-three of the said Act (which applies to dwellings in respect of which such grants are made certain conditions specified therein for a period of twenty years) shall have effect as if for the period of twenty years therein mentioned there were substituted such shorter period as may be specified in the order.

(4)So much of subsection (4) of the said section twenty as prohibits the entertaining of an application for an improvement grant under that section where the estimated expenses of the works, or the relevant proportion of those expenses, exceeds the maximum amount therein specified shall cease to have effect; but without prejudice to subsection (1) of section twenty-one of the said Act (which limits the amount of an improvement grant to a sum not exceeding one-half of the approved expenses of executing the works) the amount which may be paid by way of an improvement grant under the said section twenty in respect of expenses incurred for the purposes of the execution of any improvement works shall not exceed four hundred pounds, or such other amount as may for the time being be prescribed by regulations under Part II of the Housing Act, 1949, for each dwelling provided or improved by the works:

Provided that if the local authority, with the concurrence of the Minister, are satisfied in the case of any particular application that in all the circumstances of the case there is good reason for the payment of a higher amount than the amount authorised under this subsection, the amount of the grant to be made in pursuance of the application may be increased (notwithstanding anything in subsection (1) of the said section twenty-one) by such amount as may be determined by the authority with the consent of the Minister when they approve the application.

(5)It is hereby declared that estimates under subsection (2) of the said section twenty of expenses to be incurred for the purposes of the execution of improvement works may include the cost of the employment in connection with the works of an architect, engineer, surveyor, land agent or other person in an advisory or supervisory capacity.

(6)A local authority in fixing under section twenty-two of the said Act the rent for a dwelling in respect of which an improvement grant is to be made under that Act shall have regard to the age of the building, to the character and condition of the dwelling after the carrying out of the proposed improvement works, and to the cost of those works.

(7)In paragraph (b) of subsection (1) of section twenty-three of the said Act (under which a dwelling, in respect of whose provision or improvement a grant has been made under section twenty of that Act, must for twenty years remain let or available for letting at a maximum rent specified in that subsection except when occupied by the applicant for the grant or his devisee) for the reference to the person to whom the interest of the applicant in the dwelling has been devised by him there shall be substituted a reference to a person who on the death of the applicant with or without having disposed of that interest by will has become beneficially entitled to, or to an interest in, that interest or the proceeds of sale thereof.

This subsection shall have effect in relation to any dwelling, whether the improvement grant in respect of it was made before or after the commencement of this Act.

(8)Sub-paragraph (ii) of paragraph (c) of subsection (1) of section twenty-three of the said Act (under which the maximum rent payable for a dwelling in respect of which an improvement grant has been made under that Act is in certain cases determined by reference to a percentage of so much of the cost of improvement as is not set off by the grant) shall have effect, in relation to improvement works completed after the eleventh day of November, nineteen hundred and fifty-three, as if for the words " six per cent." there were substituted the words " eight per cent. ".