§ Mr. BAKERasked the Postmaster-General whether he is aware that his Department has 10 years' arrears of building work to make up, and that a large number of Crown offices are in an unhealthy and unsanitary condition because of the delay; and whether, in these circumstances, he will arrange for a large proportion of 'this work to be put in hand at once?
§ Mr. HARTSHORNThe suspension of building work during the War inevitably resulted in an accumulation of arrears of Post Office building. Every effort is being made to overtake these arrears; and in arranging the building programme priority has been given to the replacement of offices in which, on account of their age or of the growth of work, the working conditions have become unhealthy. Provision for the replacement of a number of unsatisfactory offices will be sought in the Estimates for 1924–5 which will shortly he presented to the House. There will still remain a number, but not a. large number, of old offices where the working conditions are not in all respects up to modern standards. In most of these cases the provision of up-to-date buildings has been unavoidably delayed by the difficulty of securing suitable sites or of obtaining vacant possession of sites already acquired.