§ 15. Mr. Skinnerasked the Secretary of State for the Environment what are the latest figures for council house-building for the year 1972; and if he will give comparable figures for the years 1971, 1970, 1969, 1968 and 1967.
§ The Minister for Housing and Construction (Mr. Paul Channon)As the answer contains a number of figures I will, with permission, circulate the information in the OFFICIAL REPORT.
§ Mr. SkinnerOn the basis of the first 11 months' figures, it is fairly obvious that they are the worst for the last 10 years and the prospects seem to me to be even worse for the coming years. What advice will the Minister give to local authorities embarking on a capital expenditure building programme of thousands of houses in order to repair the damage done over the last few years, when the Government spy tells the local authorities to curtail their building programmes in order to satisfy phase 2? What advice will the Minister give to local authorities in that situation?
§ Mr. ChannonIf the hon. Member will let me have the details of the cases, I shall look into them. As my hon. Friend the Under-Secretary has just mentioned, there is no curtailment of finance to local authorities which wish to press ahead with house-building schemes in areas of need. Indeed, on my instructions, letters have been sent to the authorities in the conurbations to ask them what their plans are for the future.
§ Mr. AllasonWill my hon. Friend make it clear that there is no disability whatever on local authorities on building to the extent they need? Will he make it intelligible to the House that if local authorities do not want to build it is entirely their responsibility and not the responsibility of the present Government?
§ Mr. ChannonIt is perfectly true that local authorities which wish to proceed with building schemes face no financial obstacles, and I very much hope that they will put forward proposals.
§ Mr. CroslandWe all know that there has been a scandalous decline in council 451 house building, and I have two questions for the Minister. First, is the decline a consequence of deliberate Government policy, in line with the famous statement of the predecessor of the present Secretary of State that the ratio of council housing in this country is much too high? Secondly, if the Minister says that this is not so and repeats his constant statement that local authorities are free to build as much as they need, may I ask whether he is aware that it is known to every local authority, including many labour councils which long to increase their building programmes, that they cannot do so partly because of a shortage of skilled workers in the construction industry and partly because the cost yardsticks do not allow them to do so?
§ Mr. ChannonMy right hon. and learned Friend's predecessor, on 2nd November, announced changes in the yardsticks, and I think that these will be of benefit to local authorities. There are no financial restrictions on local authorities which wish to press ahead with housing schemes.
It is an astonishing thing that when Tory councils were in power the Labour Party used to blame them; now that Labour councils are in power the Labour Party blames the Government.
Following is the information:The full year's figures will not be available till the end of the month. The starts and completions in the public sector in Great Britain in the period January to November for the years 1967 to 1972 were as follow:
| Public Sector | ||||
| Starts | Completions | |||
| January-November | ||||
| 1967 | … | … | 200,100 | 181,400 |
| 1968 | … | … | 179,300 | 171,200 |
| 1969 | … | … | 165,200 | 163,700 |
| 1970 | … | … | 143,800 | 162,300 |
| 1971 | … | … | 125,700 | 142,200 |
| 1972 | … | … | 115,700 | 112,800 |