3.2 Changes in Public Health

• In the early 19th century, public health prompted authorities to act, but this was piecemeal and initiatives were only applied locally
• Given a different local administration with different personnel and different priorities, public health schemes would collapse
• Private Acts of Parliament


  Acts obtained by local authorities that related to public health
• Administrative bodies in London

  • 300 different bodies with an interest in public health
  • Operated under 250 Acts of Parliament
• Paving boards in St Pancras parish, London

  • 16 paving boards
  • Responsible for paving the streets
  • Acting under 29 Acts of Parliament
• Private Acts of Parliament

  • Act for 'Lighting with Gas the Town of St Helens'
  • Act for 'better paving, lighting, watching, cleansing and otherwise improving the City of Exeter'
• Improvement commissioners


  Elected by the ratepayers to deal with the specific problems detailed by the Acts
• Many towns ended up with different sets of improvement commissioners dealing with different town improvements
• Oligarchy


  Government by a few people, a small exclusive group
• By the 1830s, many people were beginning to criticise the corrupt nature of town improvement committees and, sometimes, the town corporations themselves
• In some towns, elections were rarely held and the various groupings of officials became self-perpetuating oligarchies
• Vested interests


  People or groups with a special interest in maintaining a particular system or arrangement, often to their own advantage
• Vested interests were either paid off or represented on the improvement committees themselves
• It was becoming clear that the different ways of addressing public health issues were grossly inadequate
• Some towns, like Leeds and Manchester, took advantage of the Municipal Corporations Act 1835 to assume control of paving, sewerage, street cleaning and draining
• Even so, they still needed a private Act of Parliament to enable them to do so, and this was by no means a cheap undertaking
• In 1846, the City of Liverpool obtained a Sanitary Act that made the corporation a health authority and empowered it to appoint a medical officer of health
• The town council was given powers to carry out sewerage, drainage and water supply improvements, and it appointed W.H. Duncan as the first medical officer of health in Britain
• There were a number of problems with local council control of public health reform
• Briggs is highlighting the problem of implementing the Public Health Act 1848
• The Act could be avoided or undermined in many ways, so its implementation and effectiveness was almost bound to be patchy
• The immediate implementation of the Act was overshadowed by the second cholera outbreak to hit Britain
• The General Board of Health was almost totally caught up in coping with the cholera outbreak, and only when the epidemic had died down could it focus on more general public health issues
• By the beginning of 1850, 192 towns had asked for the new public health regulations to be applied and the Act had been applied to 32 of them
• Keeping the people healthy: housing


  The provision of adequate housing, sewerage, and water supply is crucial for public health
• Providing housing for the poor

  1. Building good-quality housing for the poor

  2. Ensuring the poor can afford the housing
• One challenge of providing adequate housing for the poor is the cost
• Early housing regulations in the UK

  • Labouring Classes Lodging Houses Act 1851
  • Labouring Classes Lodging Houses Act 1853
  • Nuisances Removal Act 1866
  • Sanitary Act 1866
  • Artisans and Labourers Dwellings Act 1868
  • Artisans and Labourers Dwellings Improvement Act 1875
• Early housing regulations


  • They were often permissive, allowing but not requiring local authorities to act
  • They focused on new buildings, so had limited impact on existing poor housing conditions
• Local authorities faced challenges in enforcing housing regulations due to vested interests and lack of resources
• The Public Health Act 1875 clarified the powers of local authorities regarding building regulations, leading to more standardised by-laws
• Despite regulations, authorities had to rely on expedients to address urgent public health issues like epidemics and disease
• Programmes of slum clearance

  • Birmingham's progressive slum clearance programme
• Residents evicted from slum clearance programmes faced challenges finding new affordable housing
• Joseph Chamberlain


  Radical social reformer, set up free public libraries and art galleries, took control of the city council, had little regard for the aristocracy, distrusted Gladstone and opposed his Home Rule policies, became Colonial Secretary in Salisbury's Conservative-Unionist government, supported expansion in Africa, promoted his own policy of tariff reform
• Chamberlain was elected MP for Birmingham


  1868
• Chamberlain was elected MP for Birmingham four years later


  1876
• Chamberlain became Colonial Secretary

  1895
• Chamberlain left public life because of a stroke

  1903
• World War I, house building stopped and house repairs were minimal


  1914-18