HL Deb 22 December 1965 vol 271 cc1047-8

2.54 p.m.

LORD ERROLL OF HALE

My Lords, I beg leave to ask the Question which stands in my name on the Order Paper.

[The Question was as follows:

To ask Her Majesty's Government what steps they propose to take in order to stabilise the cost of new houses.]

THE JOINT PARLIAMENTARY SECRETARY, MINISTRY OF LAND AND NATURAL RESOURCES (LORD MITCHISON)

My Lords, the Government's aim, as announced in the recent White Paper (Cmnd. 2838), is to plan, with the co-operation of the building societies, representatives of the builders and of the local authorities, for a steadily rising house-building programme. Stability in house prices will be encouraged by relating the housing programme in this way to the resources available; by securing increases in productivity, particularly through the use of industrialised building techniques; by ensuring that land is available for housing at the right time, and by controlling inessential building.

LORD ERROLL OF HALE

My Lords, I am grateful to the noble Lord for his reply, but, as increasing wage costs are the biggest single factor putting up house prices, can the noble Lord give any indication as to what the Government are going to do in that matter?

LORD MITCHISON

My Lords, that, with respect, is a different question, and goes far beyond that which is on the Order Paper. But perhaps I might remind the noble Lord that the Government of which he was so distinguished a member met with precisely the same difficulty, and that since about the beginning of 1960 the costs of house building, whether of private houses or of council houses, have risen at much the same rate at which they have been rising in recent months. It is not a tendency that anyone wants to encourage, and the measures I have just recited are destined to discourage it.

LORD WADE

My Lords, would the noble Lord agree that the costs of new houses are in fact still continuing to rise?

LORD MITCHISON

Yes, my Lords; they have been rising since the beginning of 1960, and it will take time for these measures to operate. I think they are on the right lines. I do not think you can try to control the price of houses by clamping down on trade union activities, or any nonsense of that sort. I think the right way to deal with it is on the lines I set out in answer to the Question.