HC Deb 24 November 1971 vol 826 cc1326-8
18. Mr. Skinner

asked the Secretary of State for the Environment what are the latest figures for house building in the public sector; and how they compare with a similar period for 1970.

Mr. Amery

In Great Britain 104,134 permanent dwellings were started in the public sector in the period January to September, 1971, and 116,310 were completed. This compares with 117,897 starts and 131,634 completions in the same period last year.

Mr. Skinner

Is the Minister aware that these figures are a total disgrace and look very sad indeed against the claim we used to hear about the Conservatives clearing the slums within ten years? Is the right hon. Gentleman proud of the boast he made in Manchester in the summer of 1969, when he urged local authorities to abandon council house building? Is he aware that 225,000 construction workers are on the dole and that when the new Housing Finance Bill has been in operation for two or three years even these figures will look like paradise?

Mr. Amery

The hon. Gentleman should beware of overstating his case. The figures which will be published at the end of the week will, I think, show a welcome rise in public sector building resulting from the understanding by local authorities of the White Paper and the Bill.

Mr. Crosland

Whatever next week's figures may show, is it not a fact that these figures are serious enough without there being any need to overstate them? Is it not the case that there are over 100,000 unemployed construction workers? In the light of that, is it not remarkable that the Chancellor of the Exchequer yesterday, when detailing his plans for increases in public expenditure, made no mention of council house building? Will the right hon. Gentleman press on the Chancellor that as part of this programme of increased public expenditure there should be an emergency programme for increasing council house building?

Mr. Amery

I am sure the right hon. Gentleman appreciates that there was uncertainty in the minds of many local authorities until the publication of the White Paper on the reform of housing finance and the publication of the Bill. The figures which will be published at the end of this week will, I am sure, show a welcome increase in public sector building, and this in itself is encouraging.

Mr. Costain

Is my right hon. Friend aware that hon. Gentlemen opposite table a similar Question every month—[interruption.]—or certainly at regular intervals, in an effort to prove that private enterprise housing does not clear slums just as effectively as council house building? Is it not better to build houses where they are wanted rather than according to dogmatic beliefs?

Mr. Amery

My hon. Friend has put the matter into perspective.

Mr. Frank Allaun

May I follow my right hon. Friend the Member for Grimsby (Mr. Crosland) in asking the right hon. Gentleman, in the light of the figures he has just given and of the army of 125,000 building workers who are unemployed, now to request local authorities to launch a crash programme of house building? I admit that it takes time to plan a house, but could they not be asked to bring forward their existing programmes by six months?

Mr. Amery

As I ventured to tell the House at the conclusion of the Second Reading debate on the Housing Finance Bill, I have written to all local authorities asking them to let me have the latest estimates of their slum problems and of how they can possibly bring forward their necessary action.