§ 103. Mr. F. Macleanasked the Minister of Local Government and Planning 249W whether his attention has been drawn to the disparity between the sum of£7,000 allocated to the Borough of Lancaster in respect of the amount of work which may be licensed during the year ending 31st December next and the much larger allocations made to other local authorities in the district; whether he is aware that, in view of the numbers of old houses in the city requiring maintenance, this is not sufficient to enable property owners to carry out their statutory obligations; and whether, in the circumstances, he will consider increasing the allocation.
§ Mr. LindgrenIn view of this local authority's special difficulties, its quota has been increased to£8,500 by transferring unused parts of other local authorities' quotas. My regional officers, with those of my right hon. Friend the Minister of Works are prepared to consider applications to licence specific works of exceptional urgency, which cannot be licensed within the quota.
106. Mr. Vaneasked the Minister of Local Government and Planning whether he is aware of the difficulty encountered by local authorities in trying to implement the Housing Act, 1949, owing to the impossibility of bringing the cost within the limits which he has set to the amount of all such work which they may license; and whether he will raise this limit.
§ Mr. LindgrenMy right hon. Friend has no information that the restrictions on licensing are preventing local authorities generally from implementing the improvement grant provisions of the Act. The total amount of work that can be licensed is limited by the other demands upon the resources of the building industry.