§ Commander Purseyasked the Minister of Housing and Local Government (1) what undertakings he obtained from Hull City Corporation that they would provide general maintenance and, in particular, efficient and safe electric wiring in the single-storey prefabricated houses in the city when those houses were transferred from his Department to the corporation, in order to avoid serious fires, expense and possible loss of life;
(2) whether he will give capital sanction to enable Hull City Corporation to restore the single-storey prefabricated houses in the city to a safe condition, in view of the recent fire caused by defective electrical circuits.
§ Mr. MacCollIt was part of the general terms of which temporary houses 165W in the immediate post-war programme were made available to local authorities that they undertook to keep the houses in a good state of external and internal repair. No specific reference was made to electrical installations. But on several occasions attention has been drawn in circulars to the authorities to the need for inspection and testing of these installations.
Temporary houses are regarded as part of an authority's normal stock of dwellings, and costs of repairs and maintenance should normally be met from the authority's housing repair fund. If, however, the Kingston upon Hull Corporation find repair costs on temporary houses particularly heavy, my right hon. Friend would be prepared to consider application for a loan repayable over five years to cover the expenditure.