Correspondence Files of the Housing Committee of Bath City Council (HG sequence)

Correspondence files created by the Town Clerk's Office in the course of the work of the Housing Committee of Bath City Council.

As the Council’s chief officer, the Town Clerk and his department were responsible for carrying out the policies and decisions made by the Council’s committees. This series records the Town Clerk’s work under the direction of the Housing Committee. Alongside BC/8/5/2, it charts the Housing Committee’s actions in response to new legislation and to local needs .
This is a partial sequence of filing; it is believed that many of the files were disposed of in the wake of the Council divesting of its housing stock to Housing Associations in 1991.

The surviving files contain correspondence, accounts, plans, notices, compensation claims, draft legal documents and other records relating to: the acquisition of lands, by compulsory purchase and by agreement; construction of new working class dwellings under the Housing of the Working Classes Act 1890; construction of new housing estates under several 20th Century Housing Acts; control of housing considered 'Unfit for Human Habitation' by means of demolition and or closing orders; acquisition of premises within 'Slum Clearance Areas'; construction of temporary housing estates during and shortly after World War 2; and construction of new permanent housing estates in the post-war period.

Arrangement. It has not been possible to establish the reason for the existence of the two series, HG and HSG, both of which relate to the Housing Committee. It is not simply a matter of date as at times the series run concurrently. The two sequences have been retained to respect their original order.