HOUSING (FOREST OF DEAN) (Hansard, 2 November 1976)

§ Mr. John Watkinson (Gloucestershire, West)

I am grateful for this opportunity to raise in the House the housing need of the Forest of Dean. When I was first elected, I was asked what was the most pressing social problem facing the forest, and I replied "Housing". That problem has not diminished; indeed, it could be said to have increased, especially in the light of the recent Government brake on housing expenditure.

1372 The Forest of Dean is, without doubt, one of the most attractive and beautiful areas in the country, but it contains within its bounds a housing problem to equal that of any urban area. I would not hesitate to say that its housing problem is one of the most profound in the South-West of England and, without doubt, it has the worst rural housing problem in the region.

The area consists of small scattered towns, villages and hamlets. Much of the housing is of nineteenth and early twentieth century origin. It was built to house the miners and their families. Money in those days was not a plentiful commodity, and housing suffered accordingly. There is now a chronic need for new housing, improvements, repairs and renovations. I note that according to the 1373 circular issued by the Department of the Environment, apart from areas already listed as having special problems of housing stress, the Government will consider representations from other areas claiming equal priority. It is my purpose to tell the Government that housing problems exist in rural areas and to use the Forest of Dean as an example. I shall also urge them to give favourable consideration to treating it as a housing stress area.

The most obvious way in which housing need manifests itself is through council house waiting lists. The Forest of Dean's list has increased. When the list was reviewed in December 1974, there were 1,318 applicants. By September 1975, although 233 applicants had been housed, the list had increased to 1,623 applicants. Since then, 199 applicants have been rehoused, but the overall number waiting is now 1,765. Thus, there has been a steady and marked increase in the demand for council housing in my area. This demand should be set against the fact that there has been no growth in population—no upsurge in the indigenous population and no influx from outside.

The reasons for the increase and the pressure on the housing waiting list are not hard to find. Over the past few years it has been increasingly difficult for young married couples to contemplate buying their own homes. There was a house price boom in the early 1970's, but it came on top of a natural reluctance by the building societies to lend money against older properties, which abound in my area. Recently, there were restrictions on lending which the Government imposed. The Government said that the building societies would fill the gap, but in my area there is no evidence that this is taking place. Indeed, it may well be that the contrary is the case.

Average wages in the Forest of Dean are lower than in the rest of Gloucestershire, and the fact that building societies will give only a multiplier of 2 to 2¼ times the level of income means that few people can consider the possibility of buying their own homes. The high level of unemployment, which, I am thankful to say, has fallen recently, has increased the pressure on the housing waiting list. Not only are privately-bought homes beyond the reach of the unemployed; it 1374 is also a fact that rented accommodation in the area has dried up.

Alongside this, the quality of much of the property in the Forest of Dean is deplorable. There are many fine council and private estates, but there is a great deal of housing which has virtually Dickensian deficiencies. The council has undertaken a survey in the district, and its findings indicate that 3,700 dwellings are not fit for human habitation, and 900 of these are not capable of being made fit at reasonable cost.

It is also the case that many people in the forest live in overcrowded conditions. Many of the letters I receive indicate overcrowding, or at best, acute family tension. It is common for young families to live with parents in the early years of marriage, and this often continues for a long Lime.

In an area such as mine we must consider the added problems that come from Government legislation. We have introduced a Bill to end tied cottages, and, as an excellent report by the local branch of Shelter indicated, this will add pressure to the housing waiting lists in my area. Likewise, in the next Session legislation will be introduced to deal with the problem of homelessness, and that too, will add pressure to the waiting list.

I cannot say that the record of the Forest of Dean District Council in house building and the acquisition of property is an outstanding one. As I have pointed out, the forest is an area in which the housing revenue account has had to bear a heavy burden of repairs and renovation of property. Also, the confused state of the housing programmes of the preexisting authority has made it difficult for the new authority. Given the scattered nature of the constituency and of the housing areas, it has been difficult to brine forward large scale schemes which could benefit from the economies of scale which result from large scale housing development.

Since 1st April 1974 the Council has built and acquired 271 properties. It must be said that this is a non-inspiring record. However, the council had started on a programme which would have resulted in 443 new dwellings by 1978, but under the new Government ordinance 1375 it would appear that only 60 new properties will be built between now and next March. Thereafter the future is uncertain. Also, a programme for 60 houses in the Cinderford area, where there is a great housing need, has had to be laid to one side.

The situation in my constituency, within the Forest of Dean, is grim. I hope that I have shown that we have there an acute housing need. I hope, too, that the present Labour Administration, who are naturally oriented towards the towns, will not ignore the housing problems that exist in our rural areas. I also hope that I have done sufficient to show the Government that they should give the most active consideration to granting the forest priority status in housing.

§ The Under-Secretary of State for the Environment (Mr. Ernest Armstrong)

I congratulate my hon. Friend the Member for Gloucestershire, West (Mr. Watkinson) not only on securing the Adjournment debate tonight but on the fair, yet forceful, way in which he has set out the housing problems facing the Forest of Dean District Council and on the continuing concern which he shows not only on behalf of his constituents but on matters of wider significance.

I would not for a moment argue that there is no housing need in this area, nor that the control reintroduced by Circular 80/76 makes it any easier for the local authority to satisfy that need. However, I think it is necessary for me to explain why a control of new local authority house building was needed.

First, local authority house building—which hitherto had been uncontrolled—showed every prospect of exceeding the public expenditure provision contained in the February White Paper by no less than £100 million. In easier economic circumstances this excessive enterprise on the part of local authorities might be overlooked, but, as my hon. Friend is aware, these are not easy times, and local authority house building had to be brought under control in order, taking one year with another, that expenditure will not exceed what has already been budgeted for. The budget, I should add, has not been changed. It is at the same high level as it was before, and it will enable 1376 local authorities in England to average 100,000 tender acceptances per annum over the years 1976 and 1977.

I am aware that there is real housing need in my hon. Friend's area, but need is an all-embracing term, and one that is capable of a number of interpretations. I accept that there may be a need for new housing in the Forest of Dean, but an even greater need is a substantial improvement in the state of the existing housing stock.

By comparison with many other authorities in the country—all these things are relative—numbers on the waiting list, which I am advised is an open one and contains a number of applications from people not resident in the area, are not unreasonably high. I know, however, that that is no consolation to the folk who are in desperate need of a house. The latest available figure that I have is rather more than that which my hon. Friend gave. It is 1,870. He gave the figure of 1,765. I know what that means in human terms. As my hon. Friend will know, the forest did not entirely escape the effects of the Industrial Revolution, and the new council, following local government reorganisation, inherited a formidable legacy of bad housing—as my hon. Friend described so vividly.

Many of the houses are under-occupied. Much of the housing is dispersed over a wide area and does not, therefore, lend itself to the beneficial effects of housing action or general improvement area treatment prescribed in the Housing Acts of 1969 and 1974. The take-up of improvement grants made available by the Government to individual owner-occupiers to improve their housing conditions has been poor. As a result, about 3,700 houses in the district are acknowledged to be unfit for human habitation and about 900 of these are incapable of being made fit at reasonable expense. This confirms what my hon. Friend said.

I should like to say a word now about the courses of action open to the district council. First, during the current financial year it sought consent to spend £386,500 on the improvement and conversion of its existing stock of council houses. It was authorised to spend £340,000 and, under the measures announced earlier in the year by the 1377 Chancellor designed to alleviate unemployment in the construction industry, it was authorised to spend a further £120,000. I do not think that the local authority would want to complain about my Department's treatment of its case in that respect.

There are, of course, other ways open to local authorities to bring about improvement in the living conditions of their constituents. They could take advantage of the opportunities available to them under the Government's municipalisation programme by bringing into social ownership dwellings which would otherwise fall into so serious a state of disrepair that clearance was the only possible solution.

It is, of course, our policy to prevent demolition and clearance wherever possible and to give the greatest encouragement to a rehabilitation programme. I am not aware that the council has indicated any interest in this particular course of action but it may be assured of a sympathetic hearing from my Department's South-West Regional Office if it should wish to discuss it.

As I have said, control was reintroduced in new local authority housing programmes to avoid an impending overspending. In order to achieve that objective, we have had to reduce the rate of tender acceptances from their present level of about 9,000 a month to about 6,000 a month for the remainder of 1976. For 1977, we shall be aiming for a total of about 90,000 tender acceptances. Our aim, in imposing the controls, has been to protect the programmes of stress authorities. As my hon. Friend clearly recognises, there are some areas, particularly, for example, in our inner cities, where the total weight of the housing problem is substantially greater than elsewhere, and this adds another dimension to the problem.

I assure my hon. Friend that, as one from a country constituency myself—there is no great conurbation in my area—I am aware that there are patches of real housing need in rural areas.

The decisions involved in the compilation of a list of stress authorities could never be universally uncontroversial. I can well understand the disappointment of other active housing authorities—including the Forest of 1378 Dean—at not being listed, but this does not mean that the housing programmes of non-stress authorities will be ignored.

In particular, it is vital that we should not neglect the pockets of stress—some substantial—which exist in areas which, overall, appear to have a more satisfactory housing situation than the stress areas. In drawing up the present scheme, we have sought to meet these problems in two ways. First, we have made it clear that local authorities left out of the list are free to make representations as to why they should be included. My hon. Friend has made his case and he will know that the Forest of Dean district has made representations to be included in the stress list and my regional office has met the council's management team and listened to its representations. That case will be considered together with those made by other authorities in the country—about 40 in all—which are also seeking stress area status.

Secondly, by no means all the housing investment funds will be used up on new housebuilding in the stress areas. There will be funds available for new house building in the non-stress areas. In allocating these funds we shall pay special regard to areas of more localised stress and to housing pressures which arise particularly from industrial investment and social needs. It is important to note that the present stress areas have been determined in relation to new house building only. We shall continue to allocate funds for rehabilitation separately according to the relative needs of local authorities.

My hon. Friend will, I am sure, be pleased to know that our South-West Regional Office, which is fully aware of the housing need in the Forest of Dean, has recently authorised the council to accept tenders for two of its current housing schemes—42 houses in all. It will consider shortly what further action it can take to increase the rate of council house building in the area.

For the future, my right hon. Friend the Secretary of State is working towards a wholly new system of housing investment plans which would involve discussions with local authorities about the whole of their housing needs and would be linked to a system of single housing capital allocations to replace the present 1379 complicated and compartmentalised arrangements.

Finally, I think it important to emphasise that, despite the pressure on public expenditure, we have given and are giving very high priority to the housing programme. The house building programme is no longer being administered without restrictions, but the large upward step in housing public sector expenditure which we, as a Government, insisted upon when we took office in 1974 is being maintained. I hope that my hon. Friend will accept, therefore, that I and my De- 1380 partment are fully alive to the problem that he has discussed this evening and that, within the constraints imposed upon us by the present economic situation, we shall give all the assistance we can to support the efforts of the district council to meet its housing need.

I shall read and take careful note of my hon. Friend's speech. In the allocation of resources, we shall consider carefully the case that he has made tonight.