§ 6.59 p.m.
§ Mr. Roy Hattersley (Birmingham, Sparkbrook)I beg to move,
That this House believes that neither national nor local government adequately provides for the special needs of residents in the decaying central areas of industrial towns: that in particular their housing requirements are neither met by the usual terms of local authority tenancy schemes nor by the provisions of those Acts which seek to limit the overcrowding of property in multi occupation; and that they are often denied the physical amenities that are provided in other urban areas and that they lack the high level of health, welfare and education facilities that are of especial importance to the elderly, the immigrant and the low income worker who make up much of the population of these areas.In 90 seconds it is hardly possible to propose a Motion encompassing one of the great social problems of our time, but it is possible to put on record that the problems of the decaying central areas do exist; problems which the House hardly ever has debated and which it should debate. They are largely unknown to the nation and unrecorded in HANSARD, usually ignored by local authorities, for whom they pose special difficulties and on whom they impose special responsibilities—