§ 51. Mr. Mappasked the Minister of Housing and Local Government and Minister for Welsh Affairs which are the 50 or 60 local authorities where the hard-core of Slum clearance work remains; and if he will state, for each authority separately, the number of houses declared unfit in 1955 and the number cleared since that date.
95W
§ Mr. H. BrookeFollowing is the answer:
LOCAL AUTHORITIES WHOSE FIGURES INDICATE A SUBSTANTIAL LONG-TERM SLUM CLEARANCE PROBLEM Name of authority Houses estimated to be unfit in 1955 Number of them cleared by 30th June, 1960 Ashton-under-Lyne B. 1,950 328 Bacup B. 2,400 218 Batley B. 4,796 414 Bilston B. 1,798 734 Birmingham C.B. 50,250 6,219 Bishop Auckland U.D. 2,290 310 Bolton C.B. 5,500 1,336 Bootle C.B. 3,081 747 Bradford C.B. 11,148 3,077 Brighouse B. 1,440 230 Castleford B. 2,216 818 Chester C.B. 2,532 398 Colne Valley U.D. 1,153 138 Congleton B. 804 142 Coseley U.D. 2,040 517 Crook and Wellington U.D. 2,000 347 Dukinfield B. 1,281 225 Ennerdale R.D. 1,898 279 Freebridge Lynn R.D. 1,421 66 Gateshead C.B. 4,023 1,233 Halifax C.B. 3,036 441 Hartlepool B. 1,384 531 Heywood B. 1,266 484 Hyde B. 1,689 525 Kerrier R.D. 2,000 83 Kidsgrove U.D. 1,438 320 Kingston-upon-Hull C.B. 14,768 1,388 Leeds C.B. 22,500 5,386 Liverpool C.B. 88,233 5,078 Manchester C.B. 68,000 7,028 Merthyr Tydfil C.B. 2,847 388 Morley B. 2,661 480 Oldham C.B. 11,169 1,285 Portsmouth C.B. 7,000 506 Preston C.B. 6,153 1,058 Rawte stall B. 1,418 242 Rochdale C.B. 5,000 854 St. Helens C.B. 3,794 368 Salford C.B. 12,026 2,565 Sheffield C.B. 13,500 3,348 Spenborough B. 2,084 641 Stalybridge B. 1,949 316 Stockport C.B. 6,000 1,067 Stockton-on-Tees 3,075 1,199 Stoke-on-Trent C.B. 12,000 4,081 Tredegar U.D. 1,068 197 West Bromwich C.B. 4,000 1,159 Wolverhampton C.B. 5,600 2,351 Wrexham R.D. 2,646 500 York C.B. 4,381 727 TOTAL—50 416,706 62,372
§ 52. Mr. Mappasked the Minister of Housing and Local Government and Minister for Welsh Affairs if he will initiate new measures to give additional 96W help, financial and otherwise, to those local authorities faced with the excessive burden of slum clearance work.
§ Mr. H. BrookeI share the hon. Member's desire to see slum clearance go ahead more rapidly in areas where there are very large numbers of unfit houses, but I do not believe that the local authorities concerned are prevented from speeding up the rate of clearance by lack of resources at the present stage. The urgent need is for additional technical staff, and this difficulty will I hope lessen as more and more authorities elsewhere come to the end of their slum clearance programmes.