§ 40. Sir T. Mooreasked the Minister of Works how many business and residential premises have been de-requisitioned in the three years since the present Government took office, as compared with the previous three years.
§ The Minister of Works (Mr. Nigel Birch)Government Departments have de-requisitioned 733 residential premises, and 1,858 other holdings during the last three years. The comparable releases for the previous three years were 2,855 and 2,966.
§ Sir T. MooreAs obviously those figures cannot give a correct picture, would my hon. Friend give the relative percentages during the period?
§ Mr. BirchDuring the last three years we have de-requisitioned 70.5 per cent. of the outstanding properties requisitioned as opposed to 53 per cent. In fact, we are de-requisitioning nearly half as fast again as under the previous Government.