HC Deb 16 February 1965 vol 706 cc1007-8
Q5. Dr. Miller

asked the Prime Minister if he will take steps to compile a list of areas most in need of an emergency house-building programme, and concentrate all building forces on these areas in a predetermined order of priority.

The Prime Minister

A number of local authorities with the greatest housing need have been identified. By various means, including the establishment of programmes covering several years ahead and the maximum use of industrialised methods, they are being given all possible encouragement to build as many houses as they can. This is, I am sure, a more promising line of advance than an attempt to redeploy, on a national scale, the whole effort of the house-building industry.

Dr. Miller

I thank my right hon. Friend for that reply. Is he aware that most people consider that housing has the first priority in social projects and that most local authorities will welcome the help and encouragement which the Government propose to give them in helping to solve a problem with which private enterprise has so far failed to deal?

The Prime Minister

I think that the line I have indicated in the Answer is the right way to tackle this problem in areas of very special housing need. My hon. Friend has Glasgow in mind, no doubt, and some of us on both sides of the House know the problems of Merseyside and many other parts of the country. The right thing to do is to identify the needs and get an adequate housing programme for some years ahead, making sure that the housing authorities have the land. Then, in order to avoid putting too much strain on the traditional building industry, we should encourage these local authorities as far as possible to use industrialised methods, for which capacity is available.

Mr. Tilney

Will the right hon. Gentleman see that local authorities bear in mind the evidence that private enterprise building companies build as well as and faster than direct labour?

The Prime Minister

There is a lot of competing and conflicting evidence on that subject in different parts of the country. Each local authority must be encouraged to get on with building the houses needed by any method open to it. The hon. Gentleman and I both represent Merseyside constituencies. I have just stressed the fact that there is unused capacity for industrialised housing of which Liverpool is making very full use, and other local authorities might be well advised to follow that example.