31. Mr. John Hallasked the Minister of Housing and Local Government to give an estimate of the percentage of the population of England and Wales which is without a piped water supply.
§ Mr. SandysAbout 3 per cent.
Mr. HallCan my right hon. Friend give any idea of when a piped water supply is likely to be available to everyone in the country?
§ Mr. SandysThat I cannot say.
32. Mr. John Hallasked the Minister of Housing and Local Government to give an estimate of the percentage of the population resident within the area of the Wycombe Rural District Council which is without a piped water supply.
§ Mr. SandysThe Census of 1951 gave a figure, for the Wycombe rural district, of about 13 per cent., compared with an average of about 20 per cent. in rural districts generally. The current estimate is 6 per cent., compared with an average of 12 per cent. in rural districts generally.
Mr. HallIs not my right hon. Friend aware that in the Wycombe rural district there have been a number of cases where the spring and well-borne supplies have dried up even before the hot weather, and that the absence of piped water supplies in the rural areas is another of the main contributory causes of the movement of rural population into the towns? Can he not do a great deal more than is being done at present to encourage the development and provision of piped water supplies in these areas?
§ Mr. SandysI am doing what I can over the country as a whole to try to accelerate the provision of piped water supplies to the rural areas.
§ Mr. HaymanWould the Minister be prepared to ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer to reduce the interest rates on rural water supply schemes?
§ Mr. SandysI have no doubt that my right hon. Friend heard that Question.