43. Miss Leeasked the Minister of Housing and Local Government why Cannock Urban Council, Staffordshire, has not been given permission to carry out its plans for beginning at once to build 10 bungalows at Wimblebury, Staffordshire, as a preliminary to slum clearance operations in Wimblebury.
§ Mr. SandysThe council was notified last week that the scheme has been approved.
Miss LeeCan the Minister explain why a letter was originally sent from his Department saying that the council must meet its slum clearance obligations out of its normal allocation, and is he aware that this caused double distress because Cannock is an expanding mining area and is already under the handicap that all other building except council building now goes free? Therefore, it feared that his first decision might mean that its allocation was further curtailed.
§ Mr. SandysI said in my reply to the hon. Lady that the proposal has been approved. In view of what I have read in the newspapers, I naturally hesitate to attempt to stifle criticism or free speech by the hon. Lady, but I should have thought that the fact that her Question might perhaps have accelerated the decision should be a matter of satisfaction to her.