Public Health Act 1875
The Public Health Act 1875 is an Act of the Parliament of the United Kingdom, one of the Public Health Acts, and a significant step in the advancement of public health in England.
Its purpose was to codify previous measures aimed at combating filthy urban living conditions, which caused various health threats, including the spread of many diseases such as cholera and typhus.Scope of the Act
The Act made it compulsory for local powers to:
- purchase, repair or create sewers
- control water-supplies
- regulate cellars and lodging houses
- establish by-laws for controlling new streets and buildings.
With the rapid urbanisation that accompanied the Industrial Revolution, huge swathes of terraced houses had been built to accommodate the factory workers. The contrast between the housing stock built before the passage of the Act and that built after it was stark.
The Act required all new residential construction to include running water and an internal drainage system, and also led to the government prohibiting the construction of shoddy housing by building contractors.
The Act also meant that every public health authority had to have a medical officer and a sanitary inspector, to ensure the laws on food, housing, water and hygiene were carried out; and that towns had to have pavements and street lighting.
It is, however, important to realise that the new powers provided were permissive, not compulsory: they provided a model of best practice for municipalities, but actual implementation remained for the most part up to the individual local authority.
