§ 23. Mr. Langford-Holtasked the Secretary of State for Air, in view of the fact that the shortage of married quarters at Iburg means that non-commissioned officers and airmen have to wait over a year before being joined by their families, what steps he intends to take to rectify this matter.
§ Mr. AmeryThe non-commissioned officers and airmen now in official married accommodation at Iburg had to wait, on an average, about eight months for it.
Some men, however, who have gone there within the last ten weeks have already been joined by their families in 1224 private accommodation which they found themselves.
Every effort is being made to find suitable houses or flats—flats to rent that is—to augment the existing official accommodation.
§ Mr. Langford-HoltWithout asking my right hon. Friend to comment on individual cases, may I ask if he is aware of the case which I brought to his notice recently in which an N.C.O., who has already been separated from his family for eleven months, will not be joined by his family for eighteen months? Would not my right hon. Friend agree that this is one of the greatest bars to satisfactory recruiting, because the women just will not have it?
§ Mr. AmeryI am indeed aware of the case to which my hon. Friend refers. We are hoping that a solution will be found for this one, but the figures which I have given to my hon. Friend show that this is certainly exceptional.