§ Mr. Glenvil Hallasked the President of the Board of Trade if he is aware that a returned member of the Forces, with four years' foreign service, and his wife with 2½ years' service in the W.A.A.F., 1494W having obtained accommodation with difficulty and unable to afford the high prices asked for second-hand equipment, have been refused dockets for furniture and bedding by the officer in charge of utility furniture, Southport; and if he will state the conditions necessary to the issue of these permits.
§ Mr. LytteltonThe hon. Member has written to me about this matter. I am now making inquiries into it and will write to him as soon as possible. Permits for utility furniture and priority dockets for household furnishing are reserved, broadly speaking, for persons married since the beginning of the war, who are setting up house for the first time, and for the bombed out.
§ Wing-Commander Erringtonasked the President of the Board of Trade whether he is prepared to stop the issue of not immediately valid utility furniture dockets, in view of the large outstanding number which will have to be honoured and the comparatively small production of utility furniture.
§ Mr. LytteltonNo, Sir. I should be most l0th to take such a step. The rising production of utility furniture will in time enable me to meet the deferred claims which these units represent. But to stop issuing them would mean that I should be arbitrarily depriving those applying since August, 1944, of the chance of securing as much furniture as those who applied before that date.