§ 3.59 p.m.
§ Mr. John Fraser (Norwood)I beg to move,
That this House recognises the great housing needs of London and welcomes the policies of the Government designed to encourage the construction of new houses by local authorities and others, to increase housing subsidies, to improve old houses to control multiple occupation and eradicate slums, to establish reasonable rents and security of tenure and end the leasehold system, to provide out-county housing and new towns, to assist house purchase and generally to improve housing in London; condemns the Conservative Greater London Council and other Conservative councils who with the encouragement of the Conservative Party leadership, which is committed to reducing housing subsidies, have curtailed or stopped new building; and calls on the Government to take every initiative to make sure that London is provided with the new and modernised homes it needs.I do not think that there is any Member of Parliament in London politics who has not been struck by the fact that this problem is the largest and one of the most intractable to deal with. The way in which it affects the population cannot be measured solely in terms of numbers. For instance, in London the most optimistic estimate of housing demand is that of the South-East Economic Council, which estimated a need in London of 200,000 houses.If we look at the list of people waiting—
§ It being Four o'clock, Mr. SPEAKER interrupted the proceedings.