HC Deb 05 November 1975 vol 899 cc383-5
9. Mr. Frank Allaun

asked the Secretary of State for the Environment what recent steps he has taken to encourage the public and private building programme.

The Secretary of State for the Environment (Mr. Anthony Crosland)

The public expenditure provision for local autho- rity housing has been sharply increased, the levels of the cost yardstick raised substantially and guidance given to local authorities on ways of speeding up the house-building process. The measures taken to stabilise mortgage lending are restoring confidence in the private housing sector. As a result, private starts, public starts, private completions and public completions are all significantly higher than a year ago.

Mr. Allaun

Does my right hon. Friend support the TUC call for a massive housing programme, and does he agree that it would not be inflationary? How could it be, with 180,000 unemployed building workers, who, with their families, cost £2,000 a year each to keep in social security benefits and in loss of income tax to the Treasury, when they could be fully employed for very little more turning out the houses that the people need?

Mr. Crosland

If what my hon. Friend is suggesting is a crash housing programme, I am not in agreement with him, for two reasons. First, it would mean imposing an even greater element of stop-go on the house-building industry. Secondly, a massive crash programme, given present demographic trends, would imply the demolition of existing houses on a massive scale, something that I and many other hon. Members think has already gone too far. I want to see a sustainable increase in the programme, and I think that we are in sight of achieving that.

Mr. Raison

Will the Minister explain why, when the Question referred to the building programme, he answered it only in terms of the house-building programme? Can it be that he did so as there are great difficulties in the rest of the building programme? Will he say whether he will extend his action and give close attention to the private rented sector, which is languishing as a result of the Rent Act 1974?

Mr. Crosland

I answered the Question in terms of house building, as I understood that my hon. Friend the Member for Salford, East (Mr. Allaun) referred to that. Indeed, he nods affirmatively and confirms that understanding. I shall be happy to discuss the private rented sector, the decline of which long predates this Labour administration. Indeed, it proceeded with exceptional rapidity in periods of Conservative Government.

Mr. Lee

Does my right hon. Friend agree that although there has been a commendable increase in housing starts, there is considerable danger, under the take-over by the housing authorities in the spring, that his efforts will be stultified by their sabotaging activities? Will he ensure that the ban on the sale of council houses, which applies in the new towns, is extended universally to all local authorities so as to stop the Conservatives in Birmingham, for example, from wrecking the programme?

Mr. Crosland

The Conservatives are not in power in Birmingham. As I informed the House three weeks ago, the sale of council houses is under close review. I have not taken a decision. I am watching the situation. My hon. Friend is right. If there were any considerable change—which I think and hope there will not be—in the political control of housing authorities, that would constitute the biggest imaginable threat to the council house-building programme.

Mr. Michael Latham

As my hon. Friend the Member for Aylesbury (Mr. Raison) said that the question concerned all building, not just house-building, why has there been a drop of 47 per cent. in private industrial building over the past three months? Could that be a clear indication of the lack of confidence by industry in the Government's economic policies?

Mr. Crosland

I am glad that the hon. Gentleman has not repeated the grossly misleading statement that he made when he last asked a supplementary question.

Mr. Latham

I did not.

Mr. Crosland

I thought that he did. He stated, contrary to the facts, that new orders for council house building were falling. In fact, they are rising.

If the hon. Gentleman puts down a Question on the wider matter of industrial investment, I shall be happy to answer it.