§ 87. Mr. Hurdasked the Minister of Health if he will publish for each county the numbers of new houses required for farm workers as shown by the survey recently made by the agricultural executive committees.
§ Mr. BevanNo, it is not the practice to publish returns of the agricultural executive committees. The estimates to which the hon. Member refers are estimates as to housing needs over the next few years and have been made on the assumption that all the additional labour estimated to be required for the agricultural production programme will as and when it is recruited require housing in new houses. They do not, as the Question suggests, purport to be estimates of the number of houses required for agricultural workers at the present time and it would be misleading to publish them as such. My right hon. Friend the Minister of Agriculture and Fisheries and I are arranging for the war agricultural committees and the rural district councils to join together in framing realistic estimates.