§ Q1. Sir M. Galpernasked the Prime Minister what were the factors which led him to designate a junior Ministerial post for the purpose of concentrating on London housing.
§ The Prime Minister (Mr. Harold Wilson)I considered it right, in view of the character and intensity of London's housing problems, and the number of authorities concerned, that one of the two Parliamentary Secretaries to the Ministry of Housing and Local Government should, along with his other duties, take special responsibility for them.
§ Sir M. GalpernDoes my right hon. Friend not agree that Glasgow's massive housing shortage and tremendous redevelopment plan together constitute a problem which is a national rather than a local one, and a far greater one than London's? Will he consider having a Junior Minister in the Scottish Office to concentrate on Glasgow's problem?
§ The Prime MinisterI very much agree about the gravity of Glasgow's housing problem, and from what I saw of it on a visit to Scotland recently, Edinburgh's housing problem, too, in many respects, and no one can be, as I am, a Merseyside Member without knowing the gravity of Liverpool's housing problem; but it is not practically possible to deal with all of them on this basis. As I did stress in my reply, in the case of London we 616 have dual responsibility, in that there is more than one kind of local authority which is involved.