The Housing of the Working Classes Act 1885 (48 & 49 Vict. c. 72) was a public health act, not a housing act. It empowered local authorities to condemn slum housing, but not to purchase the land or finance new housing. The Housing of the Working Classes Act 1890 (53 & 54 Vict. c. 70) gave urban authorities the legal power to buy land and to construct tenements and housing estates. The 1900 act empowered authorities to purchase land for the same purpose outside of their jurisdictions.
This act was an extension to the 1890 act to empower authorities (other than rural district councils) under part 3 of the 1890 act to acquire land for housing purposes outside the area over which they have jurisdiction, and permitting metropolitan borough councils, if they so desire, to become authorities under part 3 of the principal act.[2]
Implications
This gave local authorities the legal power to buy land through compulsory purchase and to construct tenements and housing estates. Part 3 of the principal act allowed councils to:
lease land for the erection thereon of workmen's dwellings
itself undertake the erection of dwellings or the improvement or reconstruction of existing dwellings
fit up, furnish and maintain lodging working classes
make any necessary by-laws and regulations for the management and use of the lodging houses
sell dwellings or lodging houses established for seven years or upwards under Part III of the act whenever such dwellings or lodging houses are deemed by the council and the Local Government Board to be unnecessary or too expensive to keep up.[2]
