§ 63. Mr. V. Yatesasked the Minister of Housing and Local Government and Minister for Welsh Affairs, in view of the fact that 3,000 houses are becoming obsolete each year in Birmingham, with a consequent increase in the number of homeless families, if he will seek information from the local authority with a view to estimating the increased expenditure needed to rehouse those people who are additional to the number already estimated at present to be in need of accommodation.
§ Mr. RipponNo. Such an estimate would be of no practical value. No one disputes that Birmingham needs to build more houses. The problem is to get them built.
I do not know how the hon. Member has arrived at his estimate of the rate of obsolescence. In any case it would be wrong to assume that the whole task of replacement will fall on the City Council.