§ 42. Mr. Allaunasked the Chancellor of the Exchequer how much it would now cost the Treasury per annum to reduce the rate of interest on loans to local authorities for council house building from the current Public Works Loan Board rate of 6⅞ per cent. to 3 per cent. on 60-year loans on the current year's council housebuilding programme; and what percentage that sum would represent of all Government annual expenditure.
§ Mr. CallaghanThe reply to the first part of the Question is about £20 million a year, and to the second part less than170W ½ per cent. on the current year's Estimates. But the cost, and the proportion, would rise steeply every year if a similar subsidy were to be paid on the local authority housing programme of subsequent years.