§ 75. Brigadier-General Sir O. THOMASasked the Minister of Health whether, in view of the fact that the increase in the cost of living has struck the poorer middle-class. who have to face such increases out of practically unaltered or diminished incomes, even more severely than the manual working-class, he is aware that an equal 550 or possibly greater demand exists for middle-class dwellings than for what are technically known as working-class houses; and whether he will facilitate the completion of middle-class dwellings half erected before the War and still held up for want of material and labour, by subsidy or otherwise, and by the extension of the definition of working-class houses, as set out in the Schedule to the Houses of the Working Classes Act, 1903, up to the yearly rental of £60 to £65?
§ The PARLIAMENTARY SECRETARY to the MINISTRY of HEALTH (Major Astor)My right hon. Friend is aware that the demand for houses is not limited to houses of the types required by manual workers. I would point out that the definition to which the hon. and gallant Member refers is not of general application to the Housing Acts, and that in letting houses erected by them as part of their housing schemes, local authorities will not be limited by that definition.