§ 44. Mr. BROOKEasked the Secretary of State for Scotland when the new houses to accommodate the people of Smithstone, Dumbartonshire, are to be proceeded with?
§ Mr. JOHNSTONI am informed that all the preliminary arrangements in connection with this scheme of 72 houses have been completed and that the question of taking in offers is to be considered at a meeting of the county council on the 16th December.
§ 78. Mr. HARDIEasked the Secretary of State for Scotland whether his Department has approved of the proposal of the Glasgow Corporation to give a subsidy of £1 15s. per house and a loan of money to Messrs. McTaggart and Company, builders, of Glasgow, for the purpose of building houses under the 1923 Act; what decision he has taken and when houses are likely to be commenced?
§ Mr. JOHNSTONThe application of the corporation was for authority to grant a subsidy of £10 15s. per house, being the normal State subsidy of £9 plus £1 15s. from local rates and a loan of 75 percent. of the value of each of 1,364 houses to be erected by the Western Heritable Investment Company, Limited, under the Housing (Financial Provisions) Act, 1924.
1083 The application has now been approved by the Department of Health for Scotland subject to a reduction of £2 in the rent proposed to be charged for the houses or alternatively an aggregate rent reduction of £2,728 per annum for the period of the subsidy to be spread over the whole of the similarly subsidised houses belonging to the company. Permission has also been given to increase the rent so reduced should the owners' rates leviable in respect of the houses exceed 5s. per £, the increase to be permitted only to the extent to which the owners' rates exceed 5s. I understand that if the conditions laid down by the Department are accepted by the corporation and the company in question, the erection of the houses will be commenced immediately.
§ Mr. HARDIEIs the House to understand that the Government have succeeded in knocking £100,000 off the rents?
§ Mr. JOHNSTONYes, Sir, spread over 40 years. The decision of the Government which, I understand, has been accepted, is that the rents must in totality be reduced by an amount somewhere in the neighbourhood of £100,000.
§ Mr. HARDIEIn view of that statement, have not the Scottish Department an indication here of gross profiteering? I want to know what steps they are taking to prevent the public from being swindled and profiteered, as shown by the rapacity of the company in taking £100,000 extra in rents?
§ Mr. JOHNSTONWe have shown that in this particular case we are taking active steps to prevent any undue exploitation of the public.
§ Major ELLIOTIs not the £100,000 arrived at by adding together all the sums over a period of 40 years?
§ Mr. JOHNSTONYes.
§ Major ELLIOTWill the hon. Gentleman give the present actuarial value of this sum?
Mr. JOHNSONIt is £2,300 odd per annum spread over 40 years, which comes to somewhere near £100,000.