§ Major Beamishasked the Minister of Housing and Local Government on what date he sent a circular to all local authorities recommending that special consideration should be given to Regular ex-Service men for council house tenancies without regard to length of residence in the locality; how many satisfactory replies have been received; and which local authorities have written refusing to apply the suggested principle.
§ Mr. SandysIn a circular dated 8th March, 1955, I recommended to housing authorities that any application for a council house from a Regular ex-Service man who had found employment in or near the district or had family connec56W tions with it—provided the application is made within one year of his leaving the Forces—should be considered exclusively on the basis of his housing need and without regard to the length of his residence in the locality.
The results are encouraging. Almost all the local authorities have now replied. 1,302 councils have stated that either they are already applying the principles I recommended or have now decided to do so in future; 107 have given partially satisfactory replies; 7 are in course of reconsidering their practice; 36 authorities have given unsatisfactory replies, but since I am in correspondence with the councils concerned, it would be undesirable to give their names.