§
Resolution reported:
That, for the purposes of any Act of the present Session to increase the sums available for defraying expenses incurred by the Minister of Works under Section one of the Housing (Temporary Accommodation) Act, 1944, it is expedient to authorise the increase by twenty million pounds of the limit upon the sums which the Treasury may issue out of the Consolidated Fund for the purpose of defraying the expenses aforesaid.
§ Motion made, and Question proposed, "That this House doth agree with the Committee in the said Resolution."
§ 5.11 p.m.
§ Lieut.-Colonel Elliot (Scottish Universities)We do not intend to debate this at any length although these are very large sums and it would be quite wrong that they should go through without a certain amount of notice being taken of them by the House. We have later on the Order Paper an Amendment at which we hope the Minister will be able to look with sympathy and which we think will do something to meet the points we raised on the Second Reading of the Bill and on the Financial Resolution when it was first brought up in Committee.
§ 5.12 p.m.
§ Mr. Charles Williams (Torquay)I and a few of my hon. Friends took some part in the Committee Stage of the Financial Resolution. On that occasion we raised the point which had been raised by the hon. Member for Mitcham (Mr. Braddock) and other supporters of the Government, that before such a large sum as this was granted some way might have been found by the Government to carry out what the hon. Member for Mitcham and his supporters asked for. That was that there should be a general inquiry into the cost of these houses. In accordance with what has been said by my right hon. and gallant Friend the Member for the Scottish Universities (Lieut.-Col. Elliot), I do not intend to expand upon that, but it is monstrous that last night and so far today we have had no one on the Government side in the least prepared to face this matter of the inquiry.
The Parliamentary Secretary to the Ministry of Works quite charmingly gave us various reasons why costs have gone up, but that did not meet the fact, which will be found in the speech of the hon. Member for Mitcham, that in these houses where the cost is something 2027 over £1,620, we are actually getting only about 60 per cent. of real value. Many of us feel that when an expert from the Government side makes an appeal of that sort to the Government, we should have something in the nature of a report which can be laid before the House so that we may know where this money is going. I am entirely in favour of this aspect of dealing with the housing problem. I realise the difficulties and I realise that in consequence of this, some people have got reasonable homes, but purely from the financial point of view, the position has been exceedingly unsatisfactory.
§ Question put, and agreed to.