43. Miss Leeasked the Minister of Housing and Local Government on what date permission was given to local councils to sell houses built by them; the number of houses sold since then; and what percentage of the total houses built by councils this figure represents.
§ Mr. SandysGeneral consent was given to local authorities to sell council houses to sitting tenants, by circular dated 26th August, 1952. Up to the end of last month 3,868 council houses had been sold under these arrangements. This represents about 0.7 per cent. of the total number of council houses built during that period.
Miss LeeWill the Minister please carefully study the Answer that he has now given and realise that those who can buy houses and those who rent them are not interchangeable and, therefore, the need at present is to speed up the building of houses to rent and not to penalise people who can afford only to rent houses?
§ Mr. SandysThe increasing number of houses being built by private enterprise and sold reduces the number of people who wish to buy council houses.