§ 2. Mr. W. Shepherdasked the Minister of Health the number of people now living in houses which have actually been condemned, and the number living in houses which would be condemned if the normal standards were being observed.
§ Mr. BevanThe information is not available, but of the 480,000 houses in England and Wales included in prewar slum clearance programmes some 98,000 are. still in existence and occupied.
§ Mr. ShepherdIs the Minister able to say when he will remove these houses and rehouse the people?
§ Mr. BevanThese slums accumulated before the war, but they will not exist as long after the war they did before the war
§ Mr. R. S. HudsonMay I ask whether these houses are included in the Minister's estimate of 750,000 houses required to meet immediate needs?
§ Mr. AlpassIs the Minister aware that in my constituency there are large numbers of persons living in houses which were condemned 40 years ago?
§ Mr. David EcclesIs the Minister aware that a lot of these condemned houses need some first-aid repairs, and that it would be a reasonable use of materials and labour to make arrangements for those first-aid repairs to be done? At present they cannot be done.
§ Mr. BevanI am very well aware that these houses have needed first-aid repairs for very many years, but this House is not a confessional.