§ 48. Mr. MAXTON(for Mr. KIRKWOOD) asked the Secretary of State for Scotland if he is aware that the Department of Health for Scotland has had under consideration for some weeks a request by the Clydebank Town Council for permission to proceed with a scheme for the erection of over 400 houses, which are needed to relieve overcrowding and to meet the needs of an expanding population; and will he state why sanction has been withheld, as the scheme is not only needed for housing purposes but is a means of providing employment for workers in the district?
§ The UNDER-SECRETARY of STATE for SCOTLAND (Mr. Skelton)The answer to the first part of the question is in the affirmative. The scheme in question was for the erection of 470 houses, and looking to the existing circumstances of the burgh, the Department of Health felt that it would be inexpedient for the town council to proceed at the present time with a scheme of such magnitude, the estimated cost of which is £150,000, exclusive of the cost of land, roads, etc. The Department, however, realising the need for dealing immediately with uninhabitable houses, have intimated their willingness to consider sympathetically proposals to proceed with the erection of 74 new houses which the town council estimate are required to accommodate families who will be displaced from condemned houses and who 555 cannot be accommodated otherwise. As regards the abatement of overcrowding, the Department have intimated that the most obvious course in the circumstances is for the town council to use for that purpose the houses which are being erected under a previous scheme, the number still uncompleted at 31st March being 250. The Department have also intimated that if the measures which they have suggested for the abatement of overcrowding are found to be insufficient, they will be prepared to consider sympathetically any application, supported by the necessary information, which the town council may put forward for the erection of additional houses to meet the insufficiency.