§ Mr. SINKINSONasked the Secretary of State for Scotland if he will take a housing survey throughout rural Scotland with a view to providing adequate 510W cottage accommodation in every village at a rent the farm worker can pay and which will also relieve unemployment it the building trade?
Mr. W. ADAMSONThe Department of Health for Scotland have already urged local authorities of county areas to institute a survey of the houses occupied by farm workers with a view to the necessary action being taken by the local authorities to secure improvement in the housing conditions of these workers, and I am informed that many of these local authorities have already obtained or are in course of obtaining reports from their officers. I also caused a special letter to be addressed in May last to each reconstituted county council in Scotland urging them to consider the means that should be adopted to secure, through the assistance of the Housing (Rural Workers) Act, 1926, improvements in the housing of agricultural workers in the county areas. Clause 22 of the Housing (Scotland) Bill at present before Parliament will lay a duty on local authorities to review the housing conditions in their areas and to submit proposals to the Department of Health. In these circumstances, I do not consider that any further survey is necessary meantime.