HC Deb 03 February 1966 vol 723 cc1281-3
Q2. Mr. Boyd-Carpenter

asked the Prime Minister whether he will take steps to appoint a Minister to co-ordinate the activities of the Minister of Housing and Local Government and the Minister of Public Building and Works.

The Prime Minister

No, Sir.

Mr. Boyd-Carpenter

Is the right hon. Gentleman aware that the Answer he gave to a similar Question on Tuesday, in which he included the statement that brick stocks two years ago were higher than they are today, is quite untrue and is not borne out by figures issued by his own Ministers? Is he also aware that whatever might have been the figures in past years, when severe climatic conditions prevailed, has no relevance to a situation which has been created by the Minister of Public Building and Works in exhorting builders to increase their capacity while the Minister of Housing was damping down building?

The Prime Minister

I congratulate the right hon. Gentleman on having the prescience to put down a Question which enabled him to put the first part of his supplementary question. What I had in mind was three years ago. I will certainly look up the figures and give the right hon. Gentleman a reply on that point.

As to brick stocks and the housing situation, we went over this matter thoroughly on Tuesday and on Monday as well. The position is, as the right hon. Gentleman knows, that a year earlier we were acutely short of bricks and that this fact held up housing at that time. The situation has now been put right and we are now poised to go forward. In addition the acute shortage of labour which made the fulfilment of the previous target impossible has been improved, if not put right. This will now permit us to go forward to our target of half a million houses a year.

Mr. George Y. Mackie

As it is always being quoted that the country has only a 21 days' supply of bricks, can the Prime Minister give the figure in terms of the number of days' supply of bricks which the planners must have?

The Prime Minister

Having spent a lot of time on this problem in the immediate pre-war situation, my recollection is that the number of bricks that are needed and that we are likely to have varies so enormously through changes in weather that it is impossible to have any set figure of what the brick stocks should be. But a 21 days' stock is better for getting houses built than a complete absence of bricks such as we had 15 months ago.