HL Deb 04 April 1968 vol 290 cc1341-8

4.17 p.m.

LORD HUGHES

My Lords, with permission I should like to repeat in his own words, a Statement which is being made by my right honourable friend the Secretary of State for Scotland about storm damage. The Statement is as follows:

"We debated in this House on February 7, the disastrous effects of the storm which struck Scotland on the night of January 14/15. I then promised to keep the House informed of the steps taken to rehabilitate the areas affected by storm damage.

"As soon as the effects of the storm had been assessed it was apparent that complete rehabilitation would inevitably be a long process. The Government's efforts have been directed first towards making temporary repairs, so that the worst hardships were quickly removed; and then to seeing that the work of permanent repair is finished as quickly as is humanly possible.

"Unfortunately bad weather has hampered operations. There was a dry and calm spell immediately after the storm, but since then the West of Scotland has suffered three periods of strong gales accompanied by driving rain and snow. It has been necessary on these occasions to divert workmen from permanent repairs to replace temporary roof coverings which had been blown away or penetrated.

"Despite these difficult conditions a great deal has been achieved. All the damaged local authority houses, numbering nearly 200,000—over 70,000 of them in Glasgow—were made wind and watertight at an early stage, and over 63,000 of them have now been permanently repaired. Repairs to houses owned by the Scottish Special Housing Association and the four new town corporations are proceeding satisfactorily.

"Many owners whose houses are covered by comprehensive insurance are dealing with their own repairs. However, I informed the House on January 25 that I was arranging for local authorities to organise the repair of private houses where this was necessary to avoid delay. These arrangements rested on the provision of capital by the Government, the commissioning and payment of work by the local authorities, and the acceptance by owners of ultimate responsibility for the cost. The most intractable problem has been the repair of tenements in multiple ownership, many of which are inadequately insured.

"Outside Glasgow local councils have made themselves responsible for organising permanent repairs to the roofs of over 14,000 houses. Work on over 2,500 of these has been completed, and the councils assure me that all the roofs will be permanently repaired before the end of the summer.

"In Glasgow the storm damaged the roofs of some 10,000 privately-owned tenements: 5,000 of these were seriously damaged. This meant that some 80,000 households were, or could be, affected. Permanent repairs to those houses were proceeding fairly well until the weekend of March 16–17, when another bad storm struck the City, and the temporary patching suffered severely. A labour force of some 700 men, drawn from the Corporation's direct labour force, the Scottish Special Housing Association and the private contractors' labour force, was set to work.

"Under the direction of the general manager of the Corporation's building department this force has overcome the renewed emergency, and the Corporation and the master slaters have agreed to work together to ensure that all private houses in the City are fit to withstand next autumn's weather.

"To achieve this the methods of repair are being modified where necessary: strapping and roofing felt, durable enough to stand up to any weather for several years, will be used. My honourable friend, the Minister of State, who discussed these arrangements last Friday in the City, has been assured by all those concerned that the existing labour force is sufficient to ensure that by September repairs will be completed which will fully safeguard all the roofs. Labour and finance have been, and are, the two key factors in this whole operation.

"From the outset everything possible has been done by the local and central authorities to assemble and dis- pose to best advantage the necessary labour force. The Ministry of Labour have combed Scotland for men, and have brought some from England. For Glasgow's needs men have been drawn from the Corporation's staff, from local contractors and from the Scottish Special Housing Association. The men have all worked magnificently, often in very difficult conditions. The work has called for an outstanding degree of trained skill, because of the high-pitched roofs of the tenements. Let no one underestimate the danger of this work in the sort of weather we have experienced. I am sorry to say that six lives have been lost.

"As to finance, the arrangements which the local authorities have made, with the backing of Government advances, have been designed to ensure that no repair need be delayed because of lack of means. The private owners and factors have been assured that when local authorities are arranging to recover the costs of repairs they will examine each case individually and ensure that recovery does not cause hardship. Any deficit which a local authority incurs because of this will attract the special 75 per cent. Government grant. These arrangements are being administered flexibly: in urgent cases local authorities are giving instructions for repairs to be undertaken before all the formalities have been completed.

"Since the storm there has been close co-operation between the central Departments and the local authorities. I would like to pay a special tribute to the Lord Provost of Glasgow, who has shown outstanding qualities of leadership during the City's period of trial.

"If I deal more briefly with the damage to agriculture and horticulture it is not because the Government underestimate the severe losses these industries have suffered, but because fewer complications have arisen in helping farmers and growers to overcome the difficulties. As an indication of the severity of the damage I can tell the House that the estimated cost of the work covered in applications made to my Department under the various improvement schemes is now over £1 million.

"However, I now expect that the restoration of damage to farm buildings will be completed within three months: in many instances farmers are taking the opportunity of making improvements under the schemes of assistance rather than restoring existing buildings. Repair work to horticultural properties is virtually complete. Where rebuilding of glass-houses is involved some delay has taken place because of the need to concentrate on seasonal work at this time of the year. I am glad to say that labour and materials are not presenting any serious problems, either to farmers or to horticulturists.

"As regards forestry, I have now considered the Forestry Commission's advice on the report of the Action Group. I am indebted to the Group for the speed with which they did their work.

"As I announced on March 26 we have urged local authorities and wood-using industries to give preference to home-grown timber whenever possible in the next two years. We are also appealing to private woodland owners to exercise restraint in felling meanwhile, and the Forestry Commission is giving a lead in this direction. In addition we propose to offer assistance in two ways.

"First, an allowance for extra cost will be made to assist in the dispersal of sawmill timber to potential markets in other parts of the country. This will help to ensure that there is no glut in local markets which might result in valuable timber being allowed to rot. This assistance will be administered by the Forestry Commission, and will be payable to those bearing the transport charge. The Forestry Commission is working on the details and an announcement will be made early next week.

"Secondly, we have given a good deal of thought to the provision of additional heavy machinery which will be needed to extract and handle the windblown timber. The timber trade will no doubt meet some of this requirement themselves. But in view of the temporary need for the plant the Government recognise that the trade may not be able to find all the capital for short-term investment on the neces- sary scale. We are therefore arranging for the Forestry Commission to hire out machinery to owners and timber merchants at commercial rates. Full details will be announced by the Forestry Commission."

My Lords, that concludes the Statement made by my right honourable friend.

THE EARL OF DUNDEE

My Lords, I thank the noble Lord for repeating that Statement, which I think is too long to be discussed in detail—and I certainly do not want to add to the difficulties of the noble Lord in the middle of a rather vigorous and, perhaps, lengthy Committee stage of a Scottish Bill. I should like to pay a tribute to the fine work which has been done by these improvised squads of labour in such difficult conditions, and with the loss of life about which your Lordships will have regretted to hear.

There is a question I should like to ask about the damage to houses The Statement which the noble Lord repeated has given some general figures about the numbers of houses damaged, some of which were no doubt almost destroyed and some of which were no doubt only very slightly damaged. I should like to know what is happening about the families who are homeless. We were told two months ago that about 800 families were completely homeless in Glasgow alone, and an unascertained number elsewhere. I wonder if the noble Lord could tell us whether it is the aim of the local authorities eventually to put all these families back in the houses which they previously occupied, and what it happening to them meanwhile. Are they living in rest centres, or are they being crowded in with relations? And if it is going to take a long time to rehabilitate their former homes, or if in some cases it is impossible to rehabilitate them, will these people be given any priority on the waiting list for new houses?

On forestry, I am very glad it has been recognised that the chief obstacle to clearing up the mess is the difficulty of marketing and transport; and we shall look forward with interest to the Forestry Commission's announcement early next week. I do not know whether the noble Lord can say anything about the allowance for extra cost—whether it will be a fixed, fiat-rate proportion of the difference between the cost to the neighbouring markets which are clogged up and to the more distant market which is able to take the timber, or whether it will be on some other basis.

LORD AMULREE

My Lords, I should like to thank the noble Lord for repeating the Statement we have just heard. I do not wish to make any detailed comments, except that I would associate myself with what has been said about the men who have been working so hard to get the damage repaired and express the sympathy which we must all feel for the families of those who unfortunately lost their lives while carrying out this very fine work.

VISCOUNT STONEHAVEN

My Lords, may I ask the noble Lord whether, as second priority, he will consider with the position of the churches, which also suffered considerable damage. Clearly, people's houses must come first; but the churches did suffer a great deal of damage—and one can hardly expect the ministers to insure against an act of God.

LORD MITCHISON

My Lords, can something be done, if necessary beyond the letter of the law, for any of the widows or dependants of the six who lost their lives in the repair work in Glasgow?

LORD HUGHES

My Lords, I had the advantage of seeing this Statement an hour or two before your Lordships heard it, but that is the only advantage I have had. In these circumstances, you will appreciate that it is not possible for me to answer any points that were not within my knowledge before to-day. The one question I can answer is in relation to the rehousing of the homeless. I was in Glasgow on the day following the disaster, and I was also in a number of other parts of the county on that day. I was in other burghs of Scotland on Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday of that week. One thing which had already emerged clearly was that each of the local authorities had accepted it as a proper exercise of their responsibilities that all the priorities in housing should be set aside in favour of giving accommodation to those rendered homeless by the storm. In some cases, at the wish of the people concerned, that re-accommodation was of only a temporary nature. There were other cases where houses were badly damaged, or alternatively, where psychological factors entered into it, where a house could be repaired and was in fact perfectly safe but the circumstances were such that a widow said, "I will not in any circumstances go back to live in that tenement." The local authorities looked with the greatest kindness on this; and I can say without hesitation that this is the part of the problem which was most speedily and most satisfactorily resolved.

The other questions I will draw to the attention of my righ honourable friend. It may be that, as a result, I shall be writing to some noble Lords. What I hope is that the very kind expressions of sympathy with those who lost their lives which were made by the noble Earl and by the noble Lord, Lord Amulree, will be adequately reported by the Scottish Press; because I am sure that the building industry in Scotland and the families of those men will very much appreciate that sort of comment by your Lordships.

LORD FERRIER

My Lords, in the light of the fact that a great deal of the damage was done in Glasgow by the cement-bound brick chimneyheads falling into the tenements, may I ask the noble Lord whether the authorities will ensure that, as that form of construction is certain to be used in putting back the chimneyheads, they are adequately anchored to the stone building? Perhaps, also, when repair work is completed there might be a check of the chimneyheads which may not have fallen but which may have been shaken by the gale, lest they need anchoring against the possibility of a similar wind in the future.

LORD HUGHES

My Lords, I am quite certain that both these points are being acted upon by the authorities, public and private.