HC Deb 23 May 1950 vol 475 cc1825-6
15. Earl Winterton

asked the Minister of Town and Country Planning if he is aware that the rents for the houses being erected by the Crawley Development Corporation are higher than those for houses which have already been erected since the war by the Horsham Rural District Council in the town of Crawley, and that the rents of many of them are beyond the reach of the average wage-earner; and for whom these houses are intended.

Mr. Dalton

This may well be, but new town corporations are not able, as local authorities are, to reduce the rents of new houses by averaging them with those of pre-war houses. The houses now being built at Crawley are well worth the rent and many families are only too happy to pay it.

Earl Winterton

Is the right hon. Gentleman aware that in the case of four-roomed houses, the houses built by the local authority are being let for 19s. per week and in the case of the same type of houses also erected since the war by the Crawley Development Corporation, the rent is 28s. per week? Is he aware that this discrepancy will give rise to great difficulty in the future, as these are both public authorities?

Mr. Dalton

We shall have to deal with these difficulties in the further future when the development corporation hand over, when their work is done, to the local authority. I may add that this particular corporation are planning to build some houses with somewhat lower rents than those which they have hitherto put up.

Sir H. Williams

As this town is designed to accommodate the surplus population of Croydon, does not the Minister think it is rather hard luck on my constituents to have to pay such extortionate rents?