HC Deb 20 November 1951 vol 494 cc19-20W
Mr. Lewis

asked the Minister of Housing and Local Government if he will state the number of houses condemned as slum dwellings and unfit for human habitation, over-crowded and grossly over-crowded, at the outbreak of the last war.

Mr. H. Macmillan

Information available for England and Wales is as follows:

(a) Slum clearance
Number of houses in local authority slum clearance programmes up to 31st March, 1939 472,000
Number of replacement houses completed or approved up to 31st March, 1939 308,536
Number remaining to be dealt with 163,464
(b) Overcrowding
Number of overcrowded houses disclosed by the 1936 Survey 341,554

Information is not availbale as to the number remaining to be dealt with at 31st March, 1939, but at that date 23,915 houses had been erected specifically for the purpose. In addition, overcrowding was relieved to some extent by the erection of houses for other purposes (including slum clearance) and by exchanges of tenancies.