§ 26. Major GLYNasked the Minister of Health what is the total number of houses that have been purchased through the medium of the various Housing Acts since 1919, either through building societies, local authorities, or direct from builders, all such houses being of the type to earn the subsidy; what is the estimated total value of capital so invested; and whether the rate at which houses for the working classes are being so acquired is greater now than in the years before the War.
Mr. CHAMBERLAINI am afraid that it is not practicable to give the number of houses purchased since the War with assistance under the Housing Acts or to frame any reliable estimate of the capital so invested. I have no doubt, however, that the number of owner occupiers of working class houses has increased very largely. For example, to take only two sources of supply, loans sanctioned since the Act of 1923 up to the end of July for advances on mortgage by local authorities amounted to over £29,000,000, as compared with £898,000 for the period 1899 to the end of July, 1923, while the amount advanced on mortgage by building societies during the year 1924 (the latest date for which complete figures are available) was £40,290,137, as compared with an average annual advance of about £9,000,000 during the five years before the War.