§ Mr. PONSONBYasked the First Commissioner of Works whether he is aware that there are districts in Sheffield, such as the Tyler Street estate, the Petre Street estate, and Tinsley, where temporary huts, erected during the War and still the property of the Office of Works are being used as dwelling houses for several thousand people: whether, seeing that these wooden huts, erected on sites where there are no proper roads and no adequate street lighting, are, owing to their light structure, very unsuitable for permanent dwellings, His Majesty's Government will undertake to demolish these temporary shelters and erect suitable houses on the sites in question, by this means meeting to some extent the great deficiency of houses in the district and at the same time giving work to the unemployed in the building trade and other allied trades?
§ Sir J. BAIRDThe answer to the first part is in the affirmative. The question of providing houses to meet local needs is one for the local authorities, and my Department has no power to erect houses for this purpose.