HC Deb 15 May 1947 vol 437 cc1680-3
12. Mr. Gooch

asked the Minister of Health, in view of the importance of home food production and the necessity for maintaining the labour force on the land, if he will allocate additional houses to the rural areas and ensure that, in the letting of new houses in the villages, the rural district councils will give every consideration to the needs of the farm workers.

3. Mr. Walker-Smith

asked the Minister of Health whether he is prepared to consider increasing the proportion of houses of non-traditional design to be allotted to areas of vital food production

Mr. Bevan

Rural district councils are being encouraged to build all the houses —including non-traditional designs—that available resources permit and to allocate the maximum number, consistent with their general obligations under the Housing Acts, to agricultural workers.

Mr. Gooch

Does my right hon. Friend realise that owing to the neglect of past Governments, thousands of farm workers have been waiting for years for traditional houses, and does he realise how disappointing it will be to them to have to take their place in the queue?

Mr. R. S. Hudson

Does the right hon. Gentleman also realise that under the present regime the unfortunate agricultural workers will have to wait a great deal longer before getting houses?

Mr. Bevan

In reply to the first supplementary question, the agricultural workers are not in the queue; they are, in fact, given priority in the provision of nontraditional houses in order to add to the total pool of houses in rural areas. The answer to the second supplementary question is the evidence in every hamlet in Great Britain of actual houses going up.

Mr. Hudson

Is the right hon. Gentleman aware that, on the basis of his own answer, only some 1,200 houses in rural areas have been allocated to agricultural workers?

Mr. Bevan

It is not yet known how many of the houses built in agricultural areas are indeed occupied by agricultural workers, because the local authorities usually do not apply for the grant until about six months after the completion of a house. We do not yet know what the number is, but it is probably in excess of the number stated by the right hon. Gentleman.

13. Mr. Gooch

asked the Minister of Health the number of houses completed by rural district councils in England and Wales to 31st March last, in respect of which the agricultural subsidy has been claimed by the rural district councils as the letting authorities.

Mr. Bevan

6,173 houses have been completed, but applications for subsidy have not yet been received for the greater part of them. Claims for the agricultural subsidy cover 410 houses.

Mr. Gooch

Is the Minister satisfied with the number of houses allocated to farm workers, in view of the urgent need for having an adequate labour force on the land, and will he consider giving some direction to rural district councils that the claims of farm workers shall receive the utmost consideration?

Mr. Bevan

It would not be desirable for the Ministry of Health to undertake the task of allotting the houses. If that happened we would have a very difficult situation indeed, because local authorities are the best judges of the needs of people in their own areas and I do not desire to interfere with them. However, steps are being taken all the while to try to bring about a closer liaison between local authorities and the county agricultural committees in order to try to make as many of the houses as possible available to agricultural workers.

Mr. Hudson

Does not the right hon. Gentleman think that the time has come when he might try to ascertain from the local authorities the number of houses actually occupied by agricultural workers properly so-called? As he said in answer to a previous question, he cannot get that information, and I think it is time he did

Mr. Bevan

I never said I could not get the information. What I said was that the local authorities do not usually apply for the subsidy until five or six months after the completion of a house, and, therefore, there is a time lag involved in the information which I can give as to how much of the agricultural subsidy is being applied for. That is the first point The second is that it is not possible to give an absolute priority to agricultural workers. In fact, it was only the other day that I was asked by hon. Members opposite to give an absolute priority to ex-Servicemen, and many of the ex-Servicemen are not agricultural workers.

Mr. Hudson

I apologise; perhaps I did not make myself clear. This is a matter of considerable importance. Will the right hon. Gentleman consider some alteration in the form of the return provided by local authorities so as to ensure that he does get the information as to whether a particular house drawing an agricultural subsidy is, in fact, occupied by an agricultural worker?

Mr. Bevan

The additional grant which is made to a local authority for a house occupied by an agricultural worker is in itself a sufficient inducement to local authorities to put agricultural workers into these houses. If, in fact, a local authority is claiming the agricultural subsidy in respect of a number of houses not occupied by agricultural workers, the local authority is defrauding, and I should hesitate to think that local authorities are defrauding in this sense.

Mr. Hudson

Will the right hon. Gentleman get the information?

Mr. Bevan

That would be done by the district auditor in the usual way.