HC Deb 30 March 1943 vol 388 cc23-4
28. Mrs. Hardie

asked the Secretary of State for Scotland whether, as a war measure, he will consider having a survey taken of available accommodation in the Clyde area, including larger houses occupied by one or two people, with a view to providing apartments for people who have to work in that district?

Mr. Johnston

Surveys of available accommodation have been made by all the local authorities on Clydeside, and I have encouraged local authorities to make every possible use of existing accommodation by billeting and by requisitioning unoccupied houses. The requisitioning of parts only of large houses at present not fully occupied raises difficult questions, but it has been adopted as an exceptional measure in one Clydeside area, and I should be prepared to consider similar proposals from local authorities where the conditions warrant it.

Mrs. Hardie

While I thank my right hon. Friend for his reply, does he not think that, if an appeal was made to certain people who have these houses, they would be prepared to take in these tenants, as a good many people want housing accommodation; and could not something on these lines be done, as there is in Glasgow and the suburbs a large number of the bigger houses unoccupied?

Mr. Johnston

I think we had better take the advice of the local authority on these matters. As I have already said, if any local authority will make application on these lines I will gladly consider it.

Mrs. Hardie

Is the Secretary of State also aware that some of the people who have to work and live in the Glasgow area are living in shops which are rat-infested and some in houses of two or three apartments, that the death-rate among children and the tuberculosis rate are increasing in many districts, and that really something must be done?

30. Mr. Kirkwood

asked the Secretary of State for Scotland whether he is aware that the housing situation in Clydebank is being worsened by tenants who left to avoid air-raids and sub-let their houses now returning to Clydebank and evicting the sub-tenants, who are engaged on vital war work and cannot get other accommodation; and will he treat this matter as of extreme urgency to protect these war-workers?

Mr. Johnston

In so far as war workers who have taken sub-lets are not protected by the Rent Restrictions Acts, I am prepared in appropriate cases to authorise the requisitioning of the houses to enable the war workers to continue in occupancy.