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The Public Health Act 1848

The government's hand was probably forced somewhat by the 1847-48 cholera epidemic, which possibly also contributed to the Kennington Common Chartist demonstration. The legislatin followed the publication of Edwin Chadwick's Sanitary Report in 1842.

• a Central Board of Health was established.
• corporate boroughs were to assume responsibility for drainage, water supplies, removal of 'nuisances', paving etc.
• non-corporate towns should set up local Boards of health
• finance was to be raised from the rates to pay for improvements
• local Boards of Health HAD to be set up in places where the death rate was above 23 per 1,000

Weaknesses

• responsibility was STILL optional and the Board met resistance to its orders.
• London, Scotland and Ireland were excluded from the Act
• no measures were taken to ensure professionalism
• 1854: the Central Board was reduced to three members, with only ADVISORY powers
• the Central Board had few powers once a local Board was set up
• the Central Board had no money
• the problem of public health was not made a ministerial responsibility

COMMENT

The 1848 Act was a half-way measure between the strict centralisation theory behind the 1834 Poor Law Amendment Act and local independence of the 1835 Municipal Corporations Act.

After 1848 odd bits of specific legislation were passed, but in 1874 Disraeli's government took over public health: the "Ministry of Sewage".

Provincialism was strong and people in the provinces resented centralisation. London's exclusion typifies local hostility.