These bodies were practically uncontrolled, and no machinery existed for securing any uniformity of administration in the different parts of the county.
And even the Metropolitan Board had not used certain powers it possessed of making bye-laws for certain sanitary purposes.
“We cannot,” reported the Sanitary Committee of the Council, “too strongly emphasise our opinion that the London County Council should be empowered to frame bye-laws for the proper sanitary government of London, that the new or existing local bodies should put them in force, and that the County Council should be the supervising body to see that they are properly carried out.”
A somewhat similar report was made by the Housing of the Working Classes Committee.
“The Committee,” they said, “feels that until the law is strengthened, and fuller powers to enforce the law are placed in the hands of the Council, its action in dealing with insanitary areas will be of an imperfect character.”
The question of the housing of the poor in London was at once energetically taken up by the new body.
Representations were made to the Government as to the necessity of the Acts relating to the housing of the working classes being consolidated and amended.
Consequent upon this, the Government introduced a Bill which was passed—“The Housing of the Working Classes Act, 1890,”[170] which repealed and codified fourteen enactments, all having for their object the improvement of the dwellings of the artizan and labouring classes, and the clearing away of unhealthy areas. Very large powers were placed in the hands of the Council and of the district authorities to secure the better housing of the working classes. And the Act may be said to mark a new era in the history of reform in the matter of insanitary areas, giving full power to the Council as a central authority to enforce its provisions.
Before the end of this decade Parliament passed two other Acts of great advantage to the health of London. One was, “The Infectious Diseases Notification Act, 1889,” making the notification of certain specified diseases compulsory in London—smallpox, cholera, diphtheria, membraneous croup, erysipelas, scarlet fever, typhus, and other fevers.