§ 25. Mr. Gardnerasked the Minister of Housing and Local Government what is the proportion of builders now registered with the National House Builders' Registration Council; and what proportion of the total number of houses are built by them.
§ Mr. GreenwoodNearly 13,000 house-builders are registered with the council. The proportion this represents of all housebuilding firms is not known, but it is very high. They are building about 95 per cent. of all private houses under construction.
§ Mr. GardnerCan anything more be done to publicise this excellent N.H.B.R.C. scheme? Many potential purchasers have never heard of it.
§ Mr. GreenwoodThe council is conducting a publicity campaign, with, I believe, great effect, and I take the 1192 opportunity to pay tribute to what it is doing and advise everyone who is contemplating buying a house not to do so without buying one built by a builder registered with the council.
§ Mr. GoodhewIs the right hon. Gentleman aware that one of my constituents who bought such a house has had two and a half years of heavy expense in trying to get justice for himself? While the matter has at last been settled, it still established the fact that the standards set out have not been maintained.
§ Mr. GreenwoodThat is an exceptional case and all of us must have come across the occasional such case. But the council itself dealt with it as expeditiously as was consistent with doing justice to the individual builder concerned, and I believe that it is performing a most useful service extremely efficiently and effectively.