§ 2.44 p.m.
§ LORD SELSDONMy 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 whether they will take steps to ensure that multi-storey blocks of flats are equipped with adequate playground and playgroup facilities for children.]
§ LORD MOWBRAY AND STOURTONMy Lords, it is the policy of the Secretary of State for the Department of the Environment to encourage local authorities not to allocate dwellings in multistorey blocks of flats to families with young children. With advancing techniques of layout and design it should be possible to design new estates so as to avoid housing such families high up. But the problems of what playground and playgroup facilities are necessary for young children and how best to provide them are being discussed by the departments concerned, and the Department of the Environment hope to issue before the end of the year a design bulletin about play space and other facilities.
§ LORD SELSDONMy Lords, I am most grateful to my noble friend. May I ask him whether he feels that the encouragement he mentions is enough and whether he has any information available at the present time on the number of children living in multi-storey flats and at what rate this number is growing?
§ LORD MOWBRAY AND STOURTONMy Lords, my right honourable friend the Secretary of State for the Environment is very keenly aware of this problem and we are doing everything we can to see that play space and playgroup facilities are made available. Local authorities know that when they invest in this amenity, the schemes attract a grant of 75 per cent. from the Exchequer and 320 I believe that that is an inducement of a high order.
§ BARONESS WHITEMy Lords, is not the noble Lord aware that it is nearly ten years since a Working Party on this subject of which I had the honour to be chairman and of which the present Secretary of State for Science was a member, and which was financed by the Rowntree Trust, pointed out that children living in these high-rise flats, particularly those aged 2 to 5, were placed at a considerable social disadvantage? It is no use saying that parents with children should not be housed in such blocks. Children have a way of arriving. Therefore, is not the noble Lord of the view that much stronger influence should be brought to bear on local housing authorities when they build such blocks so that provision should be made from the outset for play space, playgroups and certainly for nursery schools?
§ LORD MOWBRAY AND STOURTONMy Lords, the noble Baroness is quite right. My right honourable friend, I am sure, would go most of the way with her in what she says.
§ LORD LUKEMy Lords, while thanking my noble friend for his reply, may I ask him this question? Is he aware that a paper on the subject has been prepared by ten societies interested in the welfare of children, in conjunction with the National Playing Fields Association, and that this paper will be submitted to the Minister almost immediately?
§ LORD MOWBRAY AND STOURTONYes, my Lords, I am aware of that fact. I am sure that the paper is awaited with great interest and will be studied carefully.