§ LORD TWEEDSMUIRMy 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:
- (a) how many brickworks have closed down in the last two years; and
- (b) whether they are satisfied with the liaison between the Ministry of
981 Public Building and Works and the Ministry of Housing and Local Government on the subject of the manufacture of bricks.]
§ THE PARLIAMENTARY SECRETARY, MINISTRY OF PUBLIC BUILDING AND WORKS (LORD WINTERBOTTOM)My Lords, between March, 1965, and February, 1967, 58 brickworks, with an estimated annual capacity of 230 million bricks, were recorded as permanently closed. The liaison between the Ministry of Public Building and Works and the Ministry of Housing and Local Government is perfectly satisfactory, so far as I am aware.
§ LORD TWEEDSMUIRMy Lords, while thanking the noble Lord for his answer, may I ask him this further question? Is it still the wish of the Government that the brickworks should produce bricks on the basis of a housing programme which envisaged the building of 500,000 houses a year by 1970?
§ LORD WINTERBOTTOMMy Lords, those 500,000 houses, when built, will not all be built of brick; industrialised building is a technique which is developing fast. The Government are satisfied that the greater building demand which we foresee is likely to require the full resources of both industrialised and traditional methods and materials for many years to come.
§ LORD BROOKE OF CUMNORMy Lords, may this not be just another example of the over-optimistic Government estimating that produced the present situation in the brick industry? Is the noble Lord really saying that the Government will achieve an expansion of 100,000 houses a year within three years, when originally it was planned that the expansion could not be achieved in less than five years?
§ LORD WINTERBOTTOMMy Lords, I was simply answering a question on the brick industry, not one on the problem of building as a whole.