§ Sir R. Taskerasked the Minister of Health whether, in cases where structural first-aid repairs have been made and the owner lacks financial resources to decorate and thus enable premises to be let, local authorities have power under regulation to perform this work at the owner's expense, recovering the amount so expended by way of rent until the indebtedness to the authority is cleared?
§ Mr. E. BrownThe provisions of the Housing (Emergency Powers) Act, 1939, as amended by the Repair of War Damage Act, 1941, enable local authorities to execute permanent repairs, as well as first-aid repairs in special circumstances and where the owner is unable or unwilling to do the work himself. The restrictions on the supply of material do not however permit of more than the minimum amount of decoration. There is no question of the costs being recovered from the owner, since the local authority is reimbursed by the War Damage Commission, who would also meet the proper cost of any work carried out by the owner himself.