Orders of the Day — Housing Bill

Part of the debate – in the House of Commons at 12:00 am on 16 March 1949.

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Photo of Mr Robert Mellish Mr Robert Mellish , Bermondsey Rotherhithe 12:00, 16 March 1949

I am much obliged to the right hon. and gallant Gentleman because our record at by-elections up to date has been pretty good.

I welcome the whole principle of this Bill and, in particular, the repeal in Clause 1 of the term "working-class." I could really get a little provocative on this question of the working-class, and on the stuff that has been poured out in the past by hon. Members opposite. I am glad my right hon. Friend has repealed that description because that mentality has resulted in the past in such places as Dagenham and Becontree where cottages of the lower standard, and all very much alike, have been built. I agree that they have served a useful purpose, and I am not complaining. But they bear no comparison with an estate such as that at Kidbrooke where the houses are bright, and where the architecture of each one is different. A person living in one of those houses feels that his house is different from that of everybody else. For that reason alone, I think the repeal of this term is going to give local authorities the necessary initiative to see that houses are built in accordance, not with the lowest, but with the highest standards possible.

While on the question of housing standards, I would like to draw the attention of the House to the definition of overcrowding as contained in paragraph 58 of the Fifth Schedule of the 1936 Act. Under that definition it would be possible for a husband and wife with six children between the ages of one and 10 years, and with another child under a year old, to live in three rooms, and for it to be assumed that they were not living in an overcrowded condition. That may sound incredible, but it is perfectly true, and most local authorities are strictly interpreting the definition in that way. A child of under one year of age does not count. In his opening remarks, my right hon. Friend spoke of the integrity and importance of family life. I know he will agree that something must be done to amend this position. In the borough of Bermondsey we have had to refuse applications from people who are living in conditions which are quite frankly deplorable, but who are not statutorily overcrowded. As a matter of fact, we have declined 4,600 such applications. Although this may be a point for the Committee stage, I hope the Minister will give serious consideration to this question of the definition of standards of overcrowding. It could be amended in this Bill because, after all, this is an amending Bill to the Housing Act of 1936.

Another Clause which interests me very much is Clause 6 which, I think, extends the powers of local authorities under Section 72 of the Act of 1936 in the sale of furniture and the supply of furniture on hire-purchase. My local authority, the Borough Council of Bermondsey, have had experience of this in the past. I do not want to make this a local point. The right hon. and gallant Member for the Scottish Universities (Lieut.-Colonel Elliot) talked about the local elections. He need not worry about Bermondsey; I could tell him well in advance of the time, what the result will be there, because we have had so much misrule by the Tories in the past that we do not have to ask our people to vote—they simply flock out to make sure that they do not have any more of the Tories.

We have had great experience as a housing authority since 1930, with our own direct labour scheme, and our own housing department and manager, and we have also had a hire-purchase scheme for furniture. I would like to point out that even under the new Bill an anomaly will exist which we have experienced in the past, unless the right hon. Gentleman does something about it. This is what we found. We have supplied furniture to the value of £5,467, so we have had some experience of it. We bought it from private enterprise at wholesale prices and let our people have it at wholesale prices. I think the hon. and gallant Member for Penrith and Cockermouth would agree that that is the right way to do it—no middle men; we did not make a profit and did not intend to, but we let the people have it at the price we paid for it.

The problem that we experienced was that owing to the Hire Purchase Act of 1938, we had no control over the furniture which we sold to some of our tenants if the tenants took it away when they moved. There were quite a few who did that, taking it away when they moved without telling people they were going. They took our furniture but under the Hire Purchase Act we cannot prosecute these people except in the area to which they move. Imagine the position of somebody having taken £40 or £50 worth of furniture away with them to Scotland. My Borough Council are a humane sort of council and will not go all the way up to Scotland for £50 worth of furniture. This may be a Committee point but it is important. I am asking for powers which will safeguard the local authorities so as to make sure that when they supply, say, £50 worth of furniture they can take account of it in the rent, in the agreement with the tenant, and can say, "In future your rent will be so much and when the furniture is paid for it will automatically be reduced."