29. Mr. Jagerasked the Minister of Housing and Local Government and Minister for Welsh Affairs whether, in view of the worsening unemployment situation, he will advise local authorities to expedite their housing, slum clearance and public works programmes; and whether he will give grants and loans for this purpose.
§ Sir K. JosephThe 1962 White Paper on Public Investment already provides for additional investment for these purposes, and I am willing to let local authorities with urgent needs build as many houses as they can. There will be no difficulties about loan sanction and the normal housing subsidies will be payable.
§ Mr. JegerI thank the right hon. Gentleman for that and for some of the admirable statements he has made in his speeches in the House, but may I ask whether he realises that many local authorities are many years behind in their slum clearance programmes? Will he take really active steps to make them 1489 appreciate the situation and alleviate unemployment in their own areas while, at the same time, carrying out the programmes which he himself has been urging upon them?
§ Sir K. JosephYes, Sir.
§ Mr. MacCollWill the right hon. Gentleman say what is the real reason why local authorities in this position are not building more? It cannot be shortage of labour if there is a lot of unemployment. Is it the high rents which they have to charge? Is it shortage of building materials, or what?
§ Sir K. JosephI am grateful for the way the hon. Gentleman puts his supplementary question. It is wrong to assume that unemployment in pockets necessarily includes unemployment among the skilled craftsmen on which building depends. In each area the scope for building depends always on the same things: management, labour, land, and rent-paying capacity. The emphasis in each area varies. I understand that in the hon. Gentleman's area there is some difficulty about land.
§ Mr. ShinwellHas the Minister considered in this context approaching contractors responsible for building these dwellings and also the trade unions, particularly in the building trade, in order to make arrangements, through their cooperation, to organise a skilled and unskilled labour force in order to expedite the building of houses?
§ Sir K. JosephI do not wish in any way to mock what the right hon. Gentleman says, but that is entirely the function of management, both public and private: to organise the skilled and unskilled labour resources available. There must be a drive from the local authority concerned in public enterprise housing, and in many cases local authorities have scope, I believe, for further drive.
§ Dr. BrayHaving regard to what the Minister said about the shortage of labour in the building trades, is he aware that, following an increased allocation which he made on Tees-side, there were no less than 18 tenders for the work? Is there not still a considerable excess of building capacity in the North-East which is not being used and which shows no signs of being used under his present policy?
§ Sir K. JosephIt is encouraging that there is such a capacity for work, because otherwise prices would tend to go very much higher, but I must warn the House that there is still in the country as a whole a shortage of the skilled building craftsmen on which the building programme still largely depends until we have the addition of industrialised building systems to help.
§ Mr. JegerIs the Minister aware that the Goole authority recently admitted that it was eight years behind in its slum clearance programme, while, at the same time, its 50 per cent. increase in unemployment is partly due to a shortage of building contracts? Will he intervene in this particular instance?
§ Sir K. JosephWe have agreed to Goole building 71 houses this year, but the council has not even got a tender in for that number yet.