HC Deb 06 May 1969 vol 783 cc237-41
5. Mr. Maddan

asked the Minister of Housing and Local Government what is his latest estimate of the number of new houses on which work will be begun during the course of 1969.

6. Mr. Graham Page

asked the Minister of Housing and Local Government how many houses he now expects to be completed in the current year.

22. Mr. Costain

asked the Minister of Housing and Local Government what is his latest estimate of how the total of completed houses in 1969 will compare with the number of houses completed in 1968.

40. Mr. Maddan

asked the Minister of Housing and Local Government when he expects to announce a new house building target.

67 and 68. Mr. Frank Allaun

asked the Minister of Housing and Local Government (1) what is his latest estimate of the number of new houses on which work will be begun during the course of 1969;

(2) how many houses he now expects to be completed in the current year.

The Minister of Housing and Local Government (Mr. Anthony Greenwood)

So far as a possible target is concerned, I have repeatedly made clear that I want to see the largest number of houses completed each year which economic circumstances will permit. The out-turn for 1969 will depend in large part on the success that the building societies have in attracting adequate mortgage finance. The results in the public sector in 1969 should not be very different from those in 1968. Overall, I do not expect any dramatic change in 1969 compared with 1968.

Mr. Maddan

Will the right hon. Gentleman give his latest estimate of the number of new houses on which work will begin during 1969?

Mr. Greenwood

No, Sir. The hon. Gentleman will be aware that it is unusual at this stage of the year to give a firm estimate of that kind. [HON. MEMBERS: "Answer."] I have made it perfectly clear that the outcome will be very much the same as last year. It will be about the same in the public sector, although it may be slightly down in the private sector.

Mr. Page

How can the right hon. Gentleman say that the outcome will be about the same as last year when the number of starts is so very much down compared with last year? Why is he ensuring that there will be so many fewer houses when the demand is growing so greatly? Does not this state of affairs finally dispel any faith one might have had in the promises by which the Labour Party came to power?

Mr. Greenwood

No, Sir. It is true that the number of starts at the beginning of the year was a little disappointing, but there were a number of reasons for that. It was partly due to the weather, partly because of the effects of Ronan Point and partly because of the bunching of approvals in the last quarter.

Some local authorities are dragging their feet. If hon. Gentlemen opposite would encourage local authorities to spend less time on trying to sell land and houses and more on increasing their new house building programmes, the situation would be even more satisfactory.

Mr. Costain

Will not the Minister be frank with the House and admit that completions in the first quarter were 20 per cent. down and that mortgage advances were £70 million down on the same quarter of last year? Do not these figures indicate that we will not reach 400,000 new houses, let alone the 500,000 promised by hon. Gentlemen opposite at the last General Election?

Mr. Greenwood

I know that the hon. Gentleman, like so many of his hon. Friends, is longing to take a gloomy view of the situation. The statistics do not confirm what they say, although, as I have said, it is too early in the year to be precise. The House will remember the bitter opposition from hon. Gentlemen opposite when building societies increased their interest rate to make more money available for the building of private houses.

Mr. Allaun

What do the Government intend to do to stop Conservative-controlled councils from cutting down the number of houses being built? As I do not share the optimistic view of my right hon. Friend in this matter, may I ask him to say what additional emergency measures he intends to take in the private sector to ensure that the feared fall in the number of houses being built does not materialise this year and next year?

Mr. Greenwood

In the private sector everything depends on there being an adequate inflow of money to the building societies. The latest statements from the building societies show that the reaction to the interest rate increase has been rather more encouraging than might at first have seemed. The public sector is a matter which is the direct responsibility of the local authorities concerned; and no doubt my hon. Friends and members of the public will know exactly what action to take in this respect.

Mr. Blenkinsop

Is my right hon. Friend aware that many thousands of families living in houses thank the Lord that we do not have a Tory Government?

Mr. Peter Walker

Since the Minister is blaming everybody except the Government for the terrible decline in the house building programme, would not the right hon. Gentleman agree that as the Prime Minister made a firm pledge that the Government would build 500,000 houses a year by 1970 no matter what the circumstances, it would be appropriate for the Prime Minister to explain to the House why that pledge is being broken?

Mr. Greenwood

Once again, the hon. Gentleman is somewhat out of date. [HON. MEMBERS: "Answer."] Although I enjoy listening to him regurgitating those old speeches, I am sure that he knows that a statement was made in the House in January, 1968, emphasising that the 500,000 target could not be reached because of devaluation. I repeat what I said earlier; that I do not see any drastic change in the situation this year.

The answer to the supplementary question asked by my hon. Friend the Member for South Shields (Mr. Blenkinsop) is that by the end of this year 2 million houses will have been completed since the Labour Party came to power.

31. Mr. Speed

asked the Minister of Housing and Local Government what recent evidence he has received from the Federation of Registered Housebuilders regarding the expected state of trade in 1969; and what action he proposes to take in the light of that evidence.

Mr. Greenwood

On 24th March, the Federation of Registered Housebuilders stated that their February, 1969, State of Trade Inquiry made it seem likely that no more houses would be started or completed in the private sector in 1969 than in 1968. I have regular discussions with the builders, building societies and local authorities about housing prospects, when this and other evidence is brought under review.

Mr. Speed

Does the right hon. Gentleman expect the number of private house completions this year to exceed the 1964 figure?

Mr. Greenwood

The hon. Gentleman cannot have been here when we discussed this earlier at Question Time.

Mr. Speed

I was.

Mr. Greenwood

The point about the house Federation's inquiry is that it took place before the increase in building society interest rates and the situation has changed since then. This afternoon I am holding talks with the building societies, the builders and the local authorities, when I shall be in a position better to evaluate the results of the survey conducted in February.