§ 34. Mr. Waddingtonasked the Minister of Public Building and Works whether he will make a statement on current brick stocks.
§ 35. Mr. Joplingasked the Minister of Public Building and Works how many bricks have been produced and delivered in each of the past five years.
§ Mr. LoughlinStocks of bricks at the end of 1969 were 870 million. The production and deliveries of bricks in the past 5 years are given in the Monthly Bulletin of Construction Statistics which is available in the Library. My right hon. Friend is meeting the industry again on Thursday when the situation will be further discussed.
§ Sir D. Gloverasked the Minister of Public Building and Works what estimate 300W he has made of the output of the brick industry in 1970.
§ Mr. John SilkinIt is for the industry to decide upon the actual level of production in 1970. My estimate of the demand for building bricks this year is about the same as for 1969, that is 6,500 million.
§ Sir D. Gloverasked the Minister of Public Building and Works what representations have been made to him about the danger of part of the current large brick stocks becoming obsolete because of the proposed change-over to the metric system; and whether he will make a statement about his policy on this matter.
§ Mr. John SilkinI have received no such representations. The policy on this matter is one for the manufacturers who are in touch with my Department. They are phasing their production to combine with the changes in project planning from imperial to metric dimensions. However, I do not anticipate that the existing brick stocks will become redundant. A considerable number of projects will continue to be built in imperial size bricks. There will also be a continuous requirement for imperial size bricks for maintenance, but the slightly smaller metric brick can be used satisfactorily for this purpose.