§ 26. Mr. Ronald Chamberlainasked the Minister of Health whether he has given consideration to the Report of the subcommittee of the Central Housing Advisory Committee on the conversion of existing houses; and whether he is proposing to give effect to the recommendations contained in the Report.
§ Mr. BevanThis Report is still under consideration. It will be appreciated that several of the recommendations would require legislation.
§ Mr. ChamberlainWhile I appreciate the difficulties to which my right hon. Friend refers, will he have in mind the tremendous scope and possibilities of this kind of work and impress upon his colleagues the desirability of just a little Bill being squeezed in?
§ Mr. BevanI am afraid these little Bills lead to very large Debates and this particular Bill would be extremely complicated. This sort of work uses up skilled building labour, which is in short supply. I am very anxious that the building workers should have an opportunity for straightforward work. They have been involved in war damage repairs so much that a good straight job would be very good for the morale of the building industry.
§ Mr. ChamberlainHas my right hon. Friend read pages 26 and 27 of the report, where it is clearly set out that this form of work is economical of materials and labour?
§ Mr. BevanI have read the whole of the report and I would point out that there are very considerable limits to the extent to which we can economically use the material and labour available.