§ 8. Lieut.-Colonel Price-Whiteasked the Minister of Health if he will give the weekly quantity of roofing repairs, in squares of 100 square feet, carried out over slates in the London area; and what proportion of these slates are used where roofs are completely stripped and recovered.
§ Mr. BevanI regret that the information asked for is not available. The allocation of large slates to the London Region is 1,400 squares. Local authorities have been advised that large slates should be used only for patching and that where roofs are completely stripped and re-covered large slates should not be used even though the use of alternatives may 1278 involve an increase in the pitch of the roof.
§ Lieut.-Colonel Price-WhiteWill the right hon. Gentleman bear in mind the question of making tiles more readily available for this purpose in the London area and thereby save the freight costs at present involved in bringing slates to London?
§ Mr. BevanI am deeply conscious of the necessity, not only because of the cost but because of the shortage of slates. We are doing everything we can to increase the production of tiles.
§ 9. Lieut.-Colonel Price-Whiteasked the Minister of Health why the Welsh Board of Health has directed that a proportion of prefabricated houses to be erected in the Ogwen and Llanberis districts of Caernarvon are to be slate-roofed and a proportion tile-roofed, in view of the fact that the necessary slates can be made readily available in these slate-producing areas.
§ Mr. BevanI would refer the hon. and gallant Member to the reply given to him by my hon. Friend on 7th February, when he explained that there is an acute shortage of slates owing to the heavy demands of war damage repair. No doubt slates can be made readily available in these areas, but the result is that other areas where the need is greater, as it cannot be met by other methods, have to go without. Slates will, however, be made available for the roofs of the Swedish houses about which the particular Question has arisen.