HC Deb 14 April 1970 vol 799 cc1203-4
32. Mr. Arthur Lewis

asked the Minister of Public Building and Works what recent action he has taken to assist the building industry to increase the house building programme; and whether he will make a statement.

Mr. John Silkin

Housing is for my right hon. Friend the Minister of Housing and Local Government. I have of course discussed the industrial problems with my right hon. Friend and I would refer my hon. Friend to his statement made on 18th March.—[Vol. 798, c. 405]

Mr. Lewis

Is the Minister aware that that is not a very satisfactory reply? We are all interested, on both sides of the House, in seeing this Government get back next time. Is the Minister aware that the most certain method of ensuring the return of this Government is for them to take whatever action may be necessary to produce an increase in house building in general and rented houses in particular?

Mr. Silkin

The fact remains that during the years of this Government more houses have been built than ever before. If an election were to come within the near future, or whenever it may come, I have no doubt that the country as a whole will be perfectly willing to judge our record against the miserable record of our predecessors.

Sir G. Nabarro

Does the right hon. Gentleman ever read the headlines in the Daily Mail? [Interruption.] Does not he realise that this morning the Daily Mail reported authoritatively a surplus of 1,090 million bricks, equivalent to the requirement for 90,000 conventional houses—[Interruption.] The Prime Minister should stop laughing. Does not the right hon. Gentleman think that it would be a good idea to put the bricks into new houses and use the unemployed labour for that purpose?

Mr. Silkin

That is rather a long supplementary question. I do read the headlines of the Daily Mail from time to time, but I do not need the Daily Mail to tell me about the number of bricks. The brick manufacturers hope to carry a total of 500 million bricks at any one time, so the hon. Gentleman will have to deduct that figure and do the sums all over again.