§ Ql. Mr. Rookerasked the Prime Minister if he will pay an early official visit to the West Midlands.
§ The Lord President of the Council and Leader of the House of Commons (Mr. Edward Short)I have been asked to reply.
My right hon. Friend has no immediate plans to visit the West Midlands.
§ Mr. RookerWill the Leader of the House ask the Prime Minister, before he comes to the West Midlands, to look at paragraph 151 of the report published last week by the Royal Commission on Environmental Pollution and thereafter come to my constituency of Perry Barr, where he will see the appalling conditions under which my constituents live as a result of motorway noise, which the commission forecasts will apply by 1980 to half the population of the country?
§ Mr. ShortI know of my hon. Friend's great concern about this matter. He has raised it four or five times since he came to the House in February. Five thousand houses affected by the M6 and the M5 have been identified as being eligible for insulation. The contracts for those houses are being let as quickly as possible. In addition the noise barriers at Perry Beeches are being extended, and other barriers are being provided at suitable places. I shall refer to my right hon. Friend the Prime Minister the paragraph in the Royal Commission's report mentioned by my hon. Friend.
§ Mr. EyreWill the Leader of the House undertake that before visiting the West Midlands the Prime Minister will study the report which has recently been published by the West Midlands County Council entitled "A Time for Action"? The report expresses great concern about future economic trends in the city area and asks that the present over-dependence upon metal-using industries shall not be made worse by further use of centralised controls leading to a deterioration in the employment situation in this densely populated metropolitan county.