HC Deb 30 October 1919 vol 120 c918W
Viscount WOLMER

asked the Minister of Health whether the type of cottage he has requested the Alton Rural District Council to build is estimated to cost £690, although the council has put forward a much cheaper design; whether he has informed the council that they are expected to charge an economic rent on two-thirds of the cost of the house, i.e., £460; and, if so, whether it is the policy of the Government that Hampshire labourers' cottages should be rented at 18s. a week?

Mr. J. PARKER

The Alton Rural District Council have not been requested to build cottages estimated to cost £690 in preference to others of a cheaper design. They have been informed that the types of cottages which were submitted by their own architects, and which were estimated to cost, approximately, £690 were types which the Ministry generally approved, but that if they submitted designs for a bungalow of a cheaper type these would be accepted, subject to certain modifications. The question of the rents to be charged in rural districts is one of special difficulty, and I have appointed a Committee of the Housing Advisory Council to report on this question. It would, of course, be impracticable to fix the initial rents for agricultural cottages on two-thirds of the present cost, and I have never suggested that this should be done either at Alton or elsewhere.

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