§ Order of the Day for the Second Reading read.
§ LORD STRATHCONA AND MOUNT ROYALMy Lords, I trust that your Lordships will forgive me for putting down this Bill for Second Reading at such short notice. The reason for doing so is that the building season is already far advanced, and it is most desirable that the provision which the Bill contains far assisting the construction of working-class houses should be on the Statute Book at the earliest possible date, so that it may be possible to take advantage of it this year. The Scottish Bill is on the same lines as the English Bill, and for that reason it will be, perhaps, unnecessary for me to do more than very briefly run through the clauses indicating any special Scottish provisions.
590 Clauses 1 and 2 of the Bill provide for the reduction and abolition of subsidies, and it is here that the only substantial differences between the Scottish and the English Bills are found. The main difference is that whereas the English Bill abolishes the Wheatley subsidy altogether, in Scotland it is retained for two years, but reduced from its present figure of £9 to £3, and retained for one restricted and definite purpose—namely, to deal with the problem of overcrowding among low-paid wage-earners. The reason for its retention is that overcrowding is specially prevalent in Scotland. I would remind your Lordships that the Economy Committee, presided over by the late Lord Lovat, whose untimely death has robbed your Lordships' House of one of its most useful and beloved members, which scrutinised every department of local government expenditure with the closest care, specially recommended that a subsidy should be retained for this purpose. That the subsidy will be used for this purpose, and this alone, is ensured by the provision inserted in the Bill in the other house that the rents of these houses shall not exceed 6s. a week, or in special cases, with the approval of the Department, 6s. 6d. a week. The only other point in Clauses 1 and 2 to which I need direct your Lordships' attention is the abolition of the 1923 Act subsidy to private builders. This subsidy was abolished in England in 1929, and the Lovat Committee recommended that it should now be abolished in Scotland.
Clause 3 is in almost identical terms to Clause 2 of the English Bill; that is to say, it enables the Government to carry out the arrangement which had been come to with the building societies under which the Government and local authorities will guarantee to the building societies a part of the loans which they give for the provision of working-class houses, while the societies for their part will give loans representing an increased percentage of the Value of the houses at a rate of interest 1 per cent. below their normal rate. The building society movement has not in the past flourished in Scotland to the same extent as in England, but there are welcome signs of an extension of the societies' activities in the North, and the Government hope that the provisions of Clause 3 of the Bill will enable the societies to 591 enter the larger field of working-class housing. We have a clear indication that the cost of building houses in Scotland is still falling, and the Government are anxious that the building trade should apply their minds to the question of still further reducing prices, and thereby enable houses to be let well within the means of the working classes. I beg to move.
§ Moved, That the Bill be now read 2a.—(Lord Strathcona and Mount Royal.)
§ On Question, Bill read 2a, and committed to a Committee of the Whole House.