House Purchase and Housing Act 1959

4 Duty of local authorities to make grants towards certain improvements

(1) Subject to subsection (6) of this section, a local authority shall give assistance in respect of the improvement of any dwelling by any person other than a local authority or county council by such works as may be required for the dwelling to be provided, for the exclusive use of its occupants, with the standard amenities, that is to say, subject to subsection (2) of this section, all of the following:—

(a) a fixed bath or shower in a bathroom;

(b) a wash-hand basin ;

(c) a hot water supply;

(d) a water closet in or contiguous to the dwelling ; and

(e) satisfactory facilities for storing food ;

by way of making a grant (in this Part of this Act referred to as a " standard grant") in respect of the cost of executing the works, if an application in that behalf is made by that person to the local authority and approved by them before the works are begun and the works are executed to the satisfaction of the authority.

(2) The Minister may by order vary the class of amenities which are the standard amenities for the purposes of this Part of this Act.

(3) An application under this section must specify the dwelling and the works proposed to be carried out and, where those works comprise the provision of part only of the standard amenities, must contain a statement that the dwelling is already provided with the remainder.

(4) An application under this section must also contain a statement either that the applicant is the occupier of the dwelling or that the occupier has consented in writing to the making of the application.

(5) Where the works include the provision of a hot water supply, their execution must include the connection of the supply to a sink as well as to the bath or shower and the wash-hand basin.

(6) An application under this section shall not be entertained if it relates to a dwelling provided after the end of the year nineteen hundred and forty-four, unless the dwelling was provided by the conversion before the end of the year nineteen hundred and fifty-eight of a building erected before the end of the year nineteen hundred and forty-four.