UNOCCUPIED HOUSES. (Hansard, 8 July 1924)

§ Mr. THURTLE
I beg to move, That leave be given to bring in a Bill to make provision with respect to the acquisition by municipal authorities of unoccupied houses for the purpose of relieving overcrowding. We have the extraordinary position in this country that large numbers of people are homeless, or are living in overcrowded conditions, and at the same time there are large numbers of empty houses. The object of this Bill is to set up machinery which will bring that indefensible anomaly to an end. Under the Housing Act of 1919, Section 12, local authorities possess certain powers for acquiring property. Those powers are not nearly adequate for the purpose which I have in mind. My Bill seeks to confer power on local authorities to obtain possession of empty dwellings, if the dwellings have been empty for more than three months, and dwellings so obtained shall be used to provide accommodation for people of the working classes, who may not have any homes at all or who may be living in seriously overcrowded conditions? The Bill provides that reasonable rent, according to working-class standards, shall be charged for the accommodation provided, and these rents, less a charge of 10 per cent. for administrative purposes, shall be paid to the owners of the property concerned.
It is also provided in the Bill that where a local authority is inactive, and does not exercise its power, it shall he competent for the superior authority to acquire these premises in its stead. This provision is introduced in order to guard against the case of London boroughs like Kensington, Chelsea or Westminster where, in the main, the large property interests dominate the local authorities. I submit that the object of the Bill should command the general approval of this House on broad humanitarian grounds. I cannot think that Members of this House will refuse to make what provision lies in their power to remedy the evils, which we saw manifested at Fulham 1971 yesterday, from which the people are suffering owing to lack of housing accommodation. There is a special reason why I ask for the support of the House. The right hon. Gentleman the Member for Carnarvon Boroughs (Mr. Lloyd George) said some time ago that as long as there was a crust to be found it should be shared with the men who fought for their country. I submit that as long as an empty house or an empty room is to be found in the country, that room and that house ought to be shared among the homeless ex-service men and their families.

§ Sir K. WOOD
Will the hon. Member kindly tell me if this Bill is so drafted—

§ Mr. THURTLE
I would willingly give way to the hon. Member, but I have very little time. The Minister of Health has stated that the best way of dealing with this problem is to build new houses, and in the long run that is the best way, but building houses takes a very long time, and meantime the position of many of these people is desperate, so that anything which we can do to alleviate their distress I submit we ought to do. On a very moderate estimate, if the Housing Bill is the greatest success in the world, it would take at least five years before there will be any real relaxation of the great pressure due to lack of housing accommodation, owing to the operation of that Measure.
If the proverbial messenger from Mars were to go down to the East End of London, and look at our slums and were to ask what we had to say in defence, we might say: "We know that these conditions are deplorable and they are a disgrace to the country, but until such time as we can build new houses we cannot do anything for these unfortunate people." But if he went to the West End of London, and saw, as he would see, large numbers of houses in Kensington without any occupants, what reason could we give him for not making use of these empty houses in our present emergency? I can find no adequate reason. It does not seem to me that it would be an adequate reason to talk about the rights of private property in such cases. After all, we have not forgotten the War. We remember that during the War we took these houses to billet soldiers in and to 1972 use as stores, depots and offices—[HON. MEMBERS: "What about the price!"]—and we did not ask whether the people wanted us to take them or not. We took them, just as we took human lives. I submit that to-day, when we are in such great need of housing accommodation, as a matter of national emergency we are entitled to take these houses in very much the same way.

§ Mr. PRINGLE
On the same terms?

§ Mr. THURTLE
Never mind about the terms. I am told that it is an impossible proposition to bring slum dwellers to live in the best parts of the West End of London. They say there would be a tremendous slump in property values if we brought people of this sort, the very poorest people, to live next door to the rich. [HON. MEMBERS: "Who said so?"] I have had it said to me already, and I say that if we brought people of this sort from Shoreditch and Bethnal Green to Belgravia it ought to commend itself to hon. Members opposite who have always talked about the necessity of mingling the classes. We are told that The Colonel's lady and Judy O'Grady are sisters under their skin, and I cannot see anything subversive in the idea of Mrs. Atkins, the wife of Thomas Atkins, going to live next door to Lady Vere de Vere. I suggest that, if anything, the titled lady stands to gain. She may learn something of the fortitude and courage under adversity of the poor man's wife. I am afraid I cannot go very much further into that aspect of the question, but, if Members really are serious in their sympathy with the ex-service men, and if they are really distressed by the kind of sights which were to be seen in Fulham yesterday—

§ Sir K. WOOD
And on the estates under the Office of Works.

§ Mr. THURTLE
—they ought to be prepared to take action of this sort. I am going to ask the House, for the reasons that I have given and as an indication of their earnest desire to grapple with this overcrowding problem, to give me authority to bring in this Measure.

§ Sir K. WOOD
Before the hon. Gentleman sits down, will he tell me if this Bill includes the houses under the Office of Works?

§ Mr. SPEAKER
Questions are not allowed for in the 10 minutes.