§ 21. Mr. STEPHENasked the Secretary of State for Scotland the number of houses at present under construction under the slum clearance schemes in Glasgow, the number expected to be completed by the end of the year, and the average rent of these houses, including rates?
§ Sir J. GILMOURThe number of houses under construction at 30th June, 1927, under slum clearance schemes in Glasgow was 1, 254. The number of these expected to be completed by the end of the year is 450, making together with 2, 152 houses already completed under these schemes, a total of 2, 602. The rents Of these houses including rates range from 7s. per week in the case of two-apartment tenements to 9s. per week in the case of three-apartment flats.
§ 22. Mr. STEPHENasked the Secretary of State for Scotland what steps have been taken by the Glasgow local authority, in accordance with their statutory powers, to require the owners to make habitable the 1, 300 houses in the Camlachie Parliamentary Division of Glasgow, which have been declared by the sanitary authority as unfit for human habitation, until new houses can be provided for the people concerned?
§ Sir J. GILMOURI am informed that in accordance with their statutory powers the corporation during the year 1926 called on owners to execute repairs in the case of 593 houses in the Eastern district of the city and that about half of these were in the Camlachie Parliamentary Division. A number of these 1, 300 houses, however, are beyond repair and no statutory action can be taken in regard to them until alternative accommodation has been provided, when the houses will be demolished and the sites cleared.
§ Mr. STEPHENDoes the right hon. Gentleman tell me that these houses are beyond repair and that the people inhabiting them are paying rent?
§ Sir J. GILMOURI presume so.
§ Mr. STEPHENAm I to take it that the right hon. Gentleman will do nothing to prevent people from getting rent for houses which are uninhabitable?