MR. WEBSTER (St. Pancras, E.)I beg to ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department whether he is aware that, during the past few years, the Midland Railway Company have acquired in St. Pancras large areas under compulsory powers, and that, in consequence, 23,000 of the working classes have had their dwellings taken down, and been obliged to leave that district of London; if he is aware that, within the last few months, a total of 37 houses have been demolished in Somers Town, St. Pancras, occupied by about 325 individuals, chiefly belonging to the working classes, and that these houses were acquired by arrangement from Messrs. Salter, Issott, and Salter, and sold to the Midland Railway Company prior to the 15th of last December, the date when private Bills have to be scheduled, and that a demolition of houses which would cause the removal of nearly, it is estimated, 2,000 other residents in St. Pancras is contemplated; and whether he will cause steps to be taken that, in case of any future demolition of houses used by the working classes in St. Pancras, the provisions of the Acts are all duly enforced, and suitable dwellings are erected for those evicted?
§ THE SECRETARY OF STATE FOR THE HOME DEPARTMENT (Mr. MATTHEWS, Birmingham, E.)I am not in possession of the exact figures showing what has been the actual result of the Bills promoted by the Midland Railway Company during the last few years. The schedule of the Bill now before Parliament shows that houses inhabited by 2,050 persons may be demolished. The Bill, however, not only provides, in compliance with Standing Orders, for the re-housing of persons displaced under the powers of the Bill, but a special provision has been inserted at the instance of the Home Office by which the usual clause as to replacing demolished working class dwellings is extended, not only to houses acquired compulsorily under the powers 1093 of the Bill, but to houses acquired by agreement. So far as Parliament gives me power in the matter, I will not fail to have regard to the interests of the working classes who may be disturbed under schemes promoted by the Railway Company in question.