HC Deb 13 April 1938 vol 334 cc1159-60

4.13 p.m.

Mr. Barr

I beg to move, in page 1, line 6, to leave out from "until," to the end of -the Clause, and to insert "Parliament otherwise determines."

The object of this Amendment is to secure that instead of decontrol under the principal Acts coming to an end on 24th June, 1942, it will be left open and come to an end only as Parliament determines. I wish to emphasise the impossibility, as I see it, of these Acts being brought to an end and of decontrol ceasing by that date, by a reference to my own constituency, which may be taken as typical of not a few. Yesterday the constituency of Birmingham was brought before us and we had a considerable discussion on it. I thought that to-day I might take another constituency of a somewhat different type that might allure to brighter worlds and lead the way. First of all I would refer to the published summary of the reports on housing and overcrowding that were submitted in the survey of the Department of Health of Scotland on 23rd April, 1936, supplemented by additional surveys which have been made since. My constituency consists of two burghs, the burgh of Airdrie and the burgh of Coatbridge. In the burgh of Airdrie a survey was taken of 5,657 houses, and it was found that, of that number, 1,614 were overcrowded. That is to say, there was 29 per cent. of overcrowding in the burgh of Airdrie, and later results which have come in have brought the percentage up to 29.54. In the burgh of Coatbridge, which is the larger of the two, the survey originally taken covered 8,890 houses, and of these it was found that 3,885 were overcrowded, showing a percentage of overcrowding of no less than 43.7 per cent. of all the houses surveyed. Recently I have received some additional figures from the town clerk, which, added to the previous figures, show that there is 44 per cent. of overcrowding.

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