HC Deb 23 March 1950 vol 472 cc2146-7
13. Brigadier Rayner

asked the Minister of Health what progress he has made under the Housing Act, 1949, with the reconditioning of farm workers' cottages.

33. Brigadier Medlicott

asked the Minister of Health how many farm workers' cottages in England and Wales have been reconditioned under the Housing Act, 1949; and how many of such cottages are situate in the County of Norfolk.

Mr. Bevan

Many local authorities, including rural district councils, are considering schemes under Part II of the. Housing Act, 1949, but specific information about farm workers' cottages is not available.

Brigadier Rayner

Is the right hon. Gentleman yet willing to admit that tens of thousands of agricultural workers would be much better housed today if he had not scrapped the Housing (Agricultural Workers) Act, 1938?

Mr. Bevan

Very large numbers of agricultural workers who now occupy new houses would not be in them if the materials and labour used to build them had been expended in the way the hon. and gallant Member desired.

22. Mr. Baldwin

asked the Minister of Health whether he is aware that the necessary increase of agricultural production is impossible unless licences are granted for the private building of farm workers' houses to be let at rents they can afford; and what steps he proposes to take to overcome this shortage.

Mr. Bevan

Priority has for some time been given to agricultural housing, and local authorities have already built large numbers of houses for letting at rents which agricultural workers can afford. I cannot, therefore, accept the implications in this Question.

Mr. Baldwin

Is the Minister aware that if he examines the matter again he will find that the rural houses he brags about are being offered at rents that farm labourers cannot afford—in some cases, in my constituency, at 30s. a week?

Mr. Bevan

If the hon. Gentleman will give me information I will have the matter inquired into, and also the character of the council concerned.

Mr. Baldwin

Does not the Minister know that I have already given that information in a Debate, about 18 months ago?

Mr. Bevan

The hon. Gentleman then advanced a large number of opinions which were at variance with the facts.