Artisan's_and_Labourers'_Dwellings_Improvement_Act_1875
Artisans' and Labourers' Dwellings Improvement Act 1875
United Kingdom legislation
The Artisans' and Labourers' Dwellings Improvement Act 1875 (38 & 39 Vict. c. 36) was an Act of the Parliament of the United Kingdom designed by Richard Cross, Home Secretary during Prime Minister Benjamin Disraeli's second Conservative Government, which involved allowing local councils to buy up areas of slum dwellings in order to clear and then rebuild them. It formed part of Disraeli's social reform initiative aimed at the "elevation of the people" (the working class), a policy stated in his 1872 speeches at Manchester and Crystal Palace, and associated with his doctrine of One Nation Conservatism. Also, key individuals, such as the philanthropist Octavia Hill, helped pressurise the government into passing the Act.