§ 5. Mrs. Renée Shortasked the Minister of Housing and Local Government if he will take steps to encourage and assist local authorities to protect house purchasers from unscrupulous or incompetent builders.
§ 7. Mr. Ian Gilmourasked the Minister of Housing and Local Government what measures he has taken to stamp out jerrybuilding.
§ 42. Mr. Wallaceasked the Minister of Housing and Local Government what steps he is taking to ensure good housing standards in private development projects.
§ 43. Mr. Blenkinsopasked the Minister of Housing and Local Government what action he is taking to encourage local authorities to raise standards of house building.
§ 54. Mr. Liptonasked the Minister of Housing and Local Government what action he is taking through local authorities to protect home buyers against builders of poor quality houses.
§ 60. Mr. William Hamiltonasked the Minister of Housing and Local Government whether, in view of the volume of evidence concerning jerry-built houses, he will now take steps to deal with the problem.
§ 88. Mr. Benceasked the Minister of Housing and Local Government what steps he proposes to take to ensure that people buying their own houses get homes of a building standard equal to that established for local authority houses built for letting.
§ 90. Mr. Parkasked the Minister of Housing and Local Government if he will take steps to encourage local authorities to protect house purchasers against builders of low-quality houses.
§ 91. Mr. George Jegerasked the Minister of Housing and Local Government if he will take steps to prevent the erection of jerry-built houses.
§ 92. Mr. Gregor Mackenzieasked the Minister of Housing and Local Government if he is aware of the growing concern about the low quality of house building; what steps he will take to 310 improve standards; and if he will now make a statement.
§ 93. Mr. Owenasked the Minister of Housing and Local Government if he will set up an independent inquiry into the standards of house building to give purchasers protection against jerry-building.
§ Mr. CrossmanI am determined to achieve an improvement in housing standdards as well as better protection for purchasers. To this end, I am consulting representative bodies of the house building industry, local authorities, building societies, professional institutions and other interested organisations. I am not yet ready to make any statement.
§ Mrs. ShortMy right hon. Friend"s reply will be received with great satisfaction on both sides of the House and outside, because this is one of the major problems we face in housing problems today. Will he consider the possibility of enabling the local authorities to carry out inspection of building? The machinery exists, although they have not enough building inspectors at present. Will my right hon. Friend consider a levy on the building industry to finance this local authority service?
§ Mr. CrossmanIt is jumping the gun a bit to assume a certain solution there. We are consulting all the interested bodies precisely to find out their views. It is not my impression that by any means all local authorities are anxious to take on this enormous extra responsibility, without the necessary staff. They have quite enough trouble managing and seeing that their own houses which they build are up to an adequate standard. In my view, we may well find that self-government and self-discipline in the industry is better than control from outside.
§ Mr. GilmourHas the Minister yet been able to study the proposals of the Consumers Association on jerry-building, and does he agree with them?
§ Mr. CrossmanYes, I have made a close study of those proposals. I asked representatives of the Association to come to see me and I had a long talk with them. I think that the Association did a useful job, though many of the statements which it made in its report were, perhaps, a little unfair because they had been completely out-dated by the new 311 standards laid down before it was published. This was admitted to me in conversation. However, the stimulus was very good. What is important is to realise that, if we are to have self-discipline, we must have an institution representing the whole of the building industry, architects, consumers and the rest—an adequate overall body. We are a long way from that, and my main anxiety is to encourage existing institutions to move as fast as they can to a point where we regard them as representative.
§ Mr. BlenkinsopIs my right hon. Friend aware that there has been a dramatic fall in the standard by size particularly of local authority housing over the past 13 years, while right hon. and hon. Members opposite were in power, and will he take every action he can to encourage local authorities to improve the standard?
§ Mr. CrossmanYes, but I think that we were mostly concerned in this Question not with the standard of local authority building but with that of private enterprise building. I agree with my hon. Friend that in both cases there is a danger of rabbit hutches being constructed because of the pressure to maximise quantity as against quality, and in a Circular I am now issuing to local authorities I emphasise the need for quality in their building. Quality in private enterprise building is precisely what I want this self-disciplining institution to achieve. It is important to recognise that we were building bigger and, in certain ways, better houses 12, 14 or 15 years ago than the ones being built today. The Parker Morris standards are the standards which we are urging as the ones needed today.
§ Mr. HoggHas the Minister considered the view which is held by some people that the terms implied in the contract for sale of a new house are inadequate for the protection of the purchaser, and will he consult his noble Friend the Lord Chancellor, and, perhaps, the new Law Commission, to see whether that view can be enacted?
§ Mr. CrossmanI am grateful to the right hon. and learned Gentleman. There is a great deal in this, and we are consulting the Building Societies Association also along similar lines.