§ 20. Mr. Arthur Jonesasked the Secretary of State for the Environment what effect he estimates there will be on the housing programme from the reduction of expenditure on supporting services involving the provision of roads, water and sewerage facilities due to public expenditure cuts.
§ Mr. CroslandI deplore the absence of so many Opposition Members who have put down Questions to me but who have not appeared this afternoon.
The latest house building figures do not suggest that the provision of supporting services is causing major difficulties. The Government attach high priority to new house building, both public and private, and we look to the authorities responsible for supporting services to give high priority to investment designed to support new housing development.
§ Mr. JonesIs the right hon. Gentleman aware that schemes providing infrastructure services are being curtailed? There is a great deal of evidence to that effect, especially, from my own experience, in new and expanding towns. There is concern among those responsible for the maintenance of the programmes. What comment has the right hon. Gentleman to make on that point?
§ Mr. CroslandThe new and expanding towns represent the most difficult aspect of the problems. I do not take the view that generally the lack of supporting services—we are talking mainly about water, sewerage and roads—is holding up the house building programme. But if there should be a difficulty at a particular place I should be grateful if the hon. Gentleman would write to me about it.
§ Mr. PardoeDoes the Secretary of State recognise that with the likelihood of falling standards of living generally as a result of the economic situation, we may have to accept lower pollution standards to a certain extent and no higher pollution standards in the short term? Will he therefore issue a general direction to local authorities that where builders are 1461 available to build and want to build, where land is available for low-cost houses, and where they are prepared to put in temporary sewerage facilities to deal with the crisis, they should be allowed to go ahead with the development?
§ Mr. CroslandI accept what the hon. Gentleman said at the beginning of his remarks. For that reason we have made it clear to the water authorities that their first priority must be developments to help new housing. The second priority must be industrial development. A continued improvement in the quality of our rivers must come as a third priority.
§ Mr. RaisonDoes the Secretary of State accept that junior Ministers' remarks about there being no ceiling to public sector housing are increasingly fraudulent? Does he accept that while no limits may be imposed by the Department, local authorities will be less and less able to provide public sector housing? Will the Minister say what he expects to happen in the public sector over the next two years?
§ Mr. CroslandNo, Sir. Like all my predecessors, of both parties, for many years, I do not set or give advance housing targets for two years ahead. However, I remind the hon. Gentleman, as I remind my hon. Friend the Member for Salford, East (Mr. Allaun), that private and public house building are running at a significantly higher level this year than last year. We expect the total for 1975 to be much higher than it was for 1974.