Oral Answers to Questions — Housing – in the House of Commons at on 25 March 1943.
Mr Irving Albery
, Gravesend
asked the Minister of Health whether he has considered the desirability of encouraging the building of houses of chalk in certain suitable districts, in view of the availability of material on the spot and small amount of skilled labour required?
Mr Ernest Brown
, Leith
The possibilities of building houses in chalk will doubtless be considered, along with other methods, by the inter-Departmental Committee on building materials and construction methods, whose appointment I announced in my reply to a Question from my hon. Friend the Member for South Battersea (Mr. Selley) on 19th November last, of which I am sending my hon. Friend a copy.
Mr Irving Albery
, Gravesend
If I send my right hon. Friend some of the correspondence I have received on this subject, will he have the matter further looked into?
Mr Ernest Brown
, Leith
I shall be most happy to do so.
Viscount Turnour
, Horsham and Worthing
Why has there been this delay, in view of the fact that thousands of houses in my Constituency and through the South of England have been built of chalk in the past? In view of the great lack of working-class houses, why is this matter still under consideration, after three and a half years?
Mr Ernest Brown
, Leith
Because we want to be sure that we are taking a modern view of people's desires, as to type and design of cottages.
Mr Ernest Brown
, Leith
We shall have to consider all those things when we get the report of the Committee.
Ministers make up the Government and almost all are members of the House of Lords or the House of Commons. There are three main types of Minister. Departmental Ministers are in charge of Government Departments. The Government is divided into different Departments which have responsibilities for different areas. For example the Treasury is in charge of Government spending. Departmental Ministers in the Cabinet are generally called 'Secretary of State' but some have special titles such as Chancellor of the Exchequer. Ministers of State and Junior Ministers assist the ministers in charge of the department. They normally have responsibility for a particular area within the department and are sometimes given a title that reflects this - for example Minister of Transport.
In a general election, each Constituency chooses an MP to represent them. MPs have a responsibility to represnt the views of the Constituency in the House of Commons. There are 650 Constituencies, and thus 650 MPs. A citizen of a Constituency is known as a Constituent
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