§ 25. Mr. Brockwayasked the Minister of Housing and Local Government and Minister for Welsh Affairs if he will reconsider his decision to cut the building programme of the Slough Borough Council from 400 to 240 dwellings a year.
§ Sir K. JosephThe council sought approval for a housing programme for the next seven years at the rate of 400 houses a year, or nearly four times its average completion rate over the past four years. It has been offered a guaranteed programme of 240 houses a year for three years, subject to upward revision if circumstances turn out to justify it. This is still under discussion with the council.
§ Mr. BrockwayHow can the Minister think it consistent to come to the House and put forward large proposals for the extension of housing and then to refuse house-starved Slough, where married couples cannot get homes, where rents increase and where there are evictions every week, even a meagre 400 extra houses a year?
§ Sir K. JosephI am doing this because the Government's programme is realistic. It is no good if I approve every programme regardless of whether the local authority can carry it out. I have allowed Slough two and a half times its past average performance, and I shall be delighted to raise its programme if it shows that it can build that number.
§ Mr. BrockwayIs the right hon. Gentleman aware that if Slough has not been building houses in recent years it is due to the fact that the policy of his Government—who have made heavy charges for finance, reduced finances and imposed other restrictions—has prevented it from doing so?
§ Sir K. JosephThat is quite untrue. The record shows that Slough has obtained approval over the last four years for many more houses than it has completed. If it did not think that it could complete them, it should not have sought approval for them.