§ 32. Mr. LEONARD (for Mr. KIRKWOOD)asked the Secretary of State for Scotland if he is aware that in the village of Standburn, Stirlingshire, there are almost 900 people living in houses without sanitary and drainage facilities, and that these houses were condemned in a Report to the public health committee of the county council by the sanitary inspector; and whether he will order an inquiry into the housing conditions of Standburn with a view to having the existing houses replaced by dwellings erected under the 1930 Act at rents within the reach of working-class families?
§ Mr. SKELTONI am aware of the drainage difficulties existing at Stand-burn. The local authority have had under consideration the establishment of a public sanitary drainage scheme, but the difficulty of disposing of the effluent was found to make this impracticable. The sanitary requirements of the village are served by dry closets and the Department of Health is raising with the local authority the question of whether the supply of these is adequate. With 666 regard to the second part of the question, I am informed that none of the houses at present occupied has been condemned by the sanitary inspector as unfit for human habitation. In these circumstances I do not think that there is any present necessity for a public inquiry.