§ Mr. A. Lewisasked the Minister of Housing and Local Government and Minister for Welsh Affairs whether he is aware that, due to the lack of building land in West Ham, many residents are compelled to move out to areas such as Ilford, Hornchurch, Wanstead and Woodford, and Chigwell to obtain housing; why these councils have only built 122, 14, 62, and 52 council houses, 55W respectively, during the year 1963 compared with 248, 344, 135, and 112 respectively, in the year 1951; and whether he will take action to enable these councils to build more council dwellings.
§ Mr. CorfieldMy right hon. Friend is aware of the present lack of building land in West Ham. Apart from voluntary movement outwards, for which no detailed figures are available, 1,445 families have moved to new towns and other families to the 561 dwellings provided by the council at Dagenham and Stanford-le-Hope.
The building record of the four authorities named reflects their success in dealing with slum clearance and the other priority categories on which local authorities' housing efforts have been concentrated. It is misleading simply to compare figures of dwellings built by local authorities for two arbitrarily selected years and to ignore private enterprise building. Up to the end of 1963 the total number of new dwellings provided since the war in Ilford, Horn-church, Wanstead and Woodford and Chigwell amounts to 6,515, 15,118, 3,723, and 4,692 respectively.
My right hon. Friend has already made it clear that he will give as much encouragement as he can to the building of more accommodation for Londoners.