HC Deb 12 July 1955 vol 543 cc1744-5
55. Mr. Bartley

asked the Minister of Housing and Local Government why the application made by Chester-le-Street Rural District Council for an allocation of a hundred houses to deal with slum clearance has been refused by his Department.

Mr. Sandys

In authorising local authority house-building all relevant facts are taken into account; but no separate allocations are made for particular purposes.

Mr. Bartley

Is the Minister aware that despite all that this local authority has done in regard to housing, there are still large numbers of people living in houses which have been condemned since 1938, and that, with the present allocation, the people in those houses cannot be given alternative accommodation? In view of that, would he reconsider his decision and grant the hundred houses asked for by the local authority?

Mr. Sandys

The Question related to slum clearance. The council in question has not yet sent me its proposals for slum clearance. When those proposals are received I shall most certainly look at the position again. Meanwhile, I can assure the hon. Member that the council is not being held up through lack of authorisations.

Mr. Bartley

Is it not a fact that the local authority has applied for an additional hundred houses and that the Minister has refused that application?

Mr. Sandys

It is not a question of how many houses are applied for but of what progress is being made in building the houses for which there are already authorisations.

Mr. H. Morrison

Are we to understand from this and other answers which have been given that the Government are putting the brakes on local authority housing in order to take them off private enterprise housing—or other things which are unrelated to housing? Why are the Government so persistently stopping local authority housing in a whole series of cases?

Mr. Sandys

I do not think that that is correct.