§ Mr. Bossomasked the Minister of Works if he will break down into typical contractors' form the estimate of £1,365 which has been announced as the cost of the aluminium house.
§ Mr. TomlinsonI would refer the hon. Member to the observations I made in the Debate yesterday, when I explained why I was unable to give this kind of information.
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§ Mr. Bossomasked the Minister of Works if he has contracted for the same number of kitchen units as be has for hulls of the emergency prefabricated bungalows; and do the dates for both the hulls and the kitchen units coincide.
§ Mr. TomlinsonThe answer to both parts of the Question is in the affirmative.
§ Mr. Garry Allighanasked the Minister of Works why the 118 side-entrance Uni-Seco houses allocated to the Borough of Gravesend were changed to central-entrance, thus causing delay in the delivery of the changed type, so that Gravesend are still without them; and to what extent it is the practice of his Ministry to make changes which cause such delays without consulting the local authority.
§ Mr. TomlinsonWhen an allocation of temporary houses was made to local authorities the allocation did not specify the type of house. It was decided in March 1945 to change the design of the Uni-Sego House from the side entrance to the central hall type which is generally preferred. Arrangements were made to deliver the earlier model to the more advanced sites. It was never arranged to deliver temporary houses of this model to Gravesend
§ Mr. Garry Allighanasked the Minister of Works whether he will state the dates when the local authorities of Cambridge and Gravesend, respectively, applied for and were allocated prefabricated house-hulls.
§ Mr. TomlinsonCambridge Borough Council applied for temporary houses on 22nd September, 1944, and again on 3rd July, 1945. Greenwich Borough Council applied on 17th August, 1944, and again on December 9th, 1944. Allocations were made both to Cambridge and to Gravesend, in common with all housing authorities who had applied for temporary houses, on 4th November, 1944. Supplementary allocations were made to Cambridge on 10th August, 1945 and to Gravesend on 22nd December, 1944.
§ Mr. Shurmerasked the Minister of Works if he is aware that 12 prefabricated houses being erected in Wake Green Road, Birmingham, commenced in April last, are not yet completed for occupation; and what steps he is taking to expedite the completion of these houses.
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§ Mr. TomlinsonYes, Sir. Progress was hindered by a shortage of materials. This has been overcome and all the houses on this site will probably be completed within the next month.
§ Mr. Bossomasked the Minister of Works whether the White Paper estimates for the prefabricated bungalows included all costs to local authorities as well as all costs of the Government, or what is not included in the estimates published.
§ Mr. TomlinsonNone of the expenditure incurred by local authorities is included in the estimates of cost published in the White Paper on the temporary housing programme. The estimates thus exclude the cost of land, roads and sewers, of bringing in main electricity, gas and water services to the point of junction with house connections, and of clearing and levelling the ground.
§ Mrs. Mannasked the Minister of Works if he will state the cost of the aluminium house; and the principal items comprising this cost.
§ Mr. TomlinsonThe aluminium temporary house is estimated to cost £ 1,365. This comprises all site works within the curtilage of the house, including the laying of drains and supply services, foundations, paths and fences, the manufacture of the house, all fixtures and fittings and an outside shed, transportation and erection.
§ Mr. Garry Allighanasked the Minister of Works what factors determine the order in which municipal authorities receive the prefabricated house-hulls allocated to them; and why Cambridge, which has almost escaped bombing, gets priority over Gravesend, which suffered through bombing.
§ Mr. TomlinsonSubject to special consideration of the needs of severely bombed areas, the aim is to deliver houses to local authorities as nearly as possible in the order in which they hand over sites with roads, sewers and main services properly prepared. It is, however, inevitable that there should be a considerable variation in the time taken by the Ministry of Works for site works and foundations as it is largely governed by the amount of building labour available in each locality. Moreover, there are differences in the rates at which the various types of houses1274W are coming into production and deliveries to a local authority may be affected by the type of house allocated to them.
No priority has been given to Cambridge over Gravesend, but the development by the local authority of the sites at Cambridge was completed earlier than at Gravesend. In order to supplement the labour available for the work at Gravesend, arrangements were made with the local authority for the employment of prisoners of war on the development of the site and subsequently on the foundation work, and I hope that the erection of houses will start within the next month.