§ Mr. Lubbockasked the Minister of Housing and Local Government if, in the light of information sent to him by the hon. Member for Orpington, he will make an estimate of the additional capital cost resulting from the heating of bedrooms in low-rise housing schemes; and if he will now amend the standards laid down for local authority housing so as to make heating of the whole dwelling mandatory.
§ Mr. MellishThe case quoted by the hon. Member does not invalidate the estimate which I gave in my reply of 9th May, 1967, to my hon. Friend the Member for Holborn and St. Pancras, South (Mrs. Lena Jeger). This case assumes an unrealistic comparison of cost between heating the whole house and part of it, because the heating method in question has such a high capital cost that a local authority is unlikely to use it for only a part of the dwelling. My right hon. Friend is raising the mandatory 325W minimum standard to the standard recommended as a minimum by the Parker Morris Committee, but at the present time he is not prepared to compel local authorities to go beyond this new standard.