A county council shall have power to provide houses for persons employed or paid by, or by a statutory committee of, the council, and for that purpose may be authorised to acquire or appropriate land in like manner as a local authority may be authorised to acquire or appropriate land for the purposes of this Part of this Act.
Any dock or harbour company, or any other company, society, or association established for trading or manufacturing purposes in the course of whose business, or in the discharge of whose duties, persons of the working class are employed, may (notwithstanding any Act of Parliament, or charter, or any rule of law or equity to the contrary) at any time erect, either on their own land or on any other land (which they are hereby authorised to purchase and hold for the purpose and to pay for out of any funds at their disposal), houses for the accommodation of all or any of the persons of the working class employed by them.
(1)The trustees of any houses for the working classes for the time being provided in any district by private subscriptions or otherwise, may, with the consent of a majority of the committee or other persons by whom they were appointed trustees, sell or lease the houses to the local authority of the district, or make over to them the management thereof.
(2)If in any case it appears to the Minister that the institution of legal proceedings is requisite or desirable with respect to any property required to be applied under any trusts for the provision of houses available for the working classes, or that the expediting of any such legal proceedings is requisite or desirable, the Minister may certify the case to the Attorney-General, and the Attorney-General may institute any legal proceedings, or intervene in any legal proceedings already instituted, in -such manner as he thinks proper in the circumstances.
(3)Before preparing any scheme with reference to property required to be applied under any trusts for the provision of houses available for the working classes, the court or body which is responsible for making the scheme shall communicate with the Minister and consider any recommendations made by him with reference to the proposed scheme.
Any body corporate holding land may sell, exchange, or lease the land for the purpose of the erection of houses for the working classes at such price, or for such consideration, or for such rent, as having regard to the said purpose and to all the circumstances of the case is the best that can reasonably be obtained, notwithstanding that a higher price, consideration, or rent might have been obtained if the land were sold, exchanged, or leased for another purpose.
Any commissioners or trustees of waterworks, water companies, gas boards, and other corporations, bodies and persons having the management of any waterworks, reservoirs, wells, springs, or streams of water, and gasworks respectively, may, in their discretion, grant and furnish supplies of water or gas for houses provided under this Part of this Act, either without charge or on such other favourable terms as they think fit.
(1)A local authority may, for the purposes of this Part of this Act, exercise the same powers as in the execution of their duties under the Public Health Act, 1936.
(2)In the application of this section to local authorities in London, for the reference to the Public Health Act, 1936, there shall be substituted a reference, in the case of a metropolitan borough council, to the Public Health (London) Act, 1936, in the case of the London County Council, a reference to the Metropolis Management Acts, 1855 to 1890, and, in the case of the Common Council of the City of London, a reference to the City of London (Sewers) Acts, 1848 to 1897.