§ 21. Mr. A. Lewisasked the Minister of Housing and Local Government and Minister for Welsh Affairs for the building of how many council houses Ministerial permission was requested, and for how many houses permission was granted in each year from 1945 to date, in the County Borough of West Ham; what was the total cost of the houses in each calendar year; if he will state the average cost for each type of stated house, the cost and the actual cost of repayment for the money borrowed; and if he will publish these details in HANSARD.
§ Mr. CorfieldI will, with permission, publish in the OFFICIAL REPORT the available information about programmes requested and approved, and details of numbers of dwellings in tenders approved for these years. I regret that information about the total and average costs of the dwellings concerned could not be extracted without a great deal of work, and that my right hon. Friend has no 1014 information about the cost of repayment for the money borrowed.
§ Mr. LewisWill the Minister take it from me that the figures show a drastic increase in the cost of these types of houses? As the Government have declared their intention, if elected, to reduce prices, increase the purchasing value of the £ and reduce the cost of living, can the hon. Gentleman tell us why the prices of these houses and the cost of interest repayments have gone up so much? These things vitally affect the prices of houses. What is the reason for the increases, and when does he intend to reduce these costs?
§ Mr. CorfieldThe hon. Gentleman knows perfectly well, of course, that the value of money depends not only on rising prices but on rising earnings, which have already been the subject of some discussion this afternoon.
§ Following is the table:
| WEST HAM COUNTY BOROUGH | |||
| Housing Programmes and Tenders approved | |||
| Calendar Year | Programme requested | Programme agreed | Dwellings in Tenders approved |
| 1945 | (a) | (a) | 473 |
| 1946 | |||
| 1947 | (a) | (a) | 490 |
| 1948 | (b) | (c) | 121 |
| 1949 | (b) | (c) | 178 |
| 1950 | (b) | 350 | 352 |
| 1951 | (b) | 350 | 213 |
| 1952 | (b) | 350 | 310 |
| 1953 | (a) | (a) | 407 |
| 1954 | (b) | 889 | 889 |
| 1955 | (a) | (a) | 561 |
| 1956 | (a) | (a) | 757 |
| 1957 | (a) | (a) | 507 |
| 1958 | 1,027 | 735 | 679 |
| 1959 | 749 | 749 | 568 |
| 1960 | 761 | 761 | 598 |
| 1961 | (a) | (a) | 675 |
| 1962 | 1,162 | 722 | 477 |
| 1963 | (a) | (a) | 840 |
| 1964 (6 months) | (a) | (a) | 807 |
§ Notes
§ (a) No programmes were submitted or agreed for these years.
§ (b) For these years, programmes were settled on the basis of allocations and not on programmes submitted by the local authority.
§ (c) For these years, programmes were settled on a July to June basis and are not therefore comparable with the tenders approved.