§ Mr. Steenasked the Secretary of State for the Environment if he will make a statement on the outcome of the conference at St. Helens on 10th May 1974 to which he invited representatives of Merseyside local authorities to consider ways of speeding up local authority housing programmes.
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§ Mr. KaufmanI had a most useful and interesting discussion with the nine local authorities which were represented at the meeting. I urged on the local authorities the need to increase their house-building programmes and to play their parts in the initiatives taken by the Government to reverse the disastrous national situation we inherited in housing and in general received an encouraging response. A number of points raised with me in which the Department is concerned are being followed up.