HC Deb 25 February 1931 vol 248 cc2150-1W
Mr. FREEMAN

asked the Minister of Health the amount of the county rate for the towns of Oxford and Cambridge and the amount of the contribution payable by each for building 1,000 houses for farm labourers, based on an average cost of £350 per house, in the rural areas of the respective counties; the amount of the housing debt; and the population of each town?

Mr. GREENWOOD

Oxford, being a county borough, does not contribute to the rate fund of the County of Oxford. In 1930–31 the county rate levied in the Borough of Cambridge was at the rate of 4s. 7d. in the £. The produce of this rate was approximately £122,700. The borough bears about 70 per cent. of the expenditure of the County of Cambridge and would, therefore, contribute about £700 per annum towards the cost of 1,000 houses erected for farm labourers in the rural districts in the county, if the county council confined their contribution to the minimum prescribed by the Housing Act, 1930. According to the latest information available (1929) the amount of the housing debt (exclusive of Small Dwellings Acquisition) and the population are as follow:

Housing debt. Population.
£
County Borough of Oxford 627,195 74,000
Borough of Cambridge 557,985 60,730

NUMBERS of persons on the registers of Employment Exchanges in the Eastern Division of Fifeshire at 10th February, 1930, and 9th February, 1931.
Employment Exchange. 10th February, 1930. 9th February, 1931.
Men. Boys. Women. Girls. Total. Men. Boys. Women. Girls. Total.
Anstruther 141 1 45 11 198 200 1 76 6 283
Auchtermuchty 107 1 45 7 160 174 3 86 7 270
Copar 228 1 17 1 247 251 5 24 1 281
Newbutgh 108 1 39 1 149 175 7 41 1 224
St. Andrews 143 3 19 2 167 176 4 47 1 228
Tayport 93 1 18 112 179 2 36 217
Total 820 8 183 22 1,033 1,155 22 310 16 1,503