HC Deb 17 December 1946 vol 431 cc342-3W
84. Mr. Sparks

asked the Minister of Town and Country Planning in view of his announcement that only 7½ per cent. of persons to be rehoused will be accomodated in the new towns, what is the estimated percentage proposed for London and the Greater London area.

Mr. Silkin

Sir Patrick Abercrombie recommended that 400,000 persons should be accommodated in new towns in the Greater London area. I should prefer not to estimate the percentage of Londoners to be rehoused which this figure represents, since it is impossible to say at present what number of houses will need to be cleared and reconstructed in Greater London in addition to the houses required to relieve over-crowding. In any event, I think it is misleading to consider the persons to be rehoused in new towns as a separate category from those to be rehoused in expanded towns, who account for a further 600,000 under the Greater London Plan.

85. Mr. Sparks

asked the Minister of Town and Country Planning if he accepts the recommendation in the Second Interim Report of the New Towns Committee that not more than 1,000 to 1,250 houses per annum should be added to any new town; and how long, on that basis, will it take to rehouse the percentage of persons proposed to be accommodated from the London and Greater London areas.

Mr. Silkin

My instructions to the corporations set up to develop new towns will be that they should build them as quickly as the labour stiuation permits and as is consistent with maintaining at every stage the balance of housing, industry, services and amenities. I am not prepared to say at the present time what the rate will prove to be.

86. Mr. Sparks

asked the Minister of Town and Country Planning, in view of his general inability to accept the proposals of the Advisory Committee for London Regional Planning and the constituent planning authorities that an additional 160,000 persons be accommodated in the green belt, if he will say where these persons are now to be accommodated and indicate alternative sites to the authorities concerned.

Mr. Silkin

In general the sites for the re-location of population from the congested areas of central London will be in the outer country ring and beyond, as proposed in the Greater London Plan. As I explained in my statement of 19th November, I shall shortly issue a memorandum setting out in detail my views on the report of the Advisory Committee for London Regional Planning.