The temporary programme has finished.

The problem, thanks to the failure of Members opposite to see that we got our share of houses between the wars, is much too big and too urgent to be dealt with in this fashion. We have in Edinburgh a live waiting list of over 15,000 families. How can we expect these men and women, who must altogether number some 30,000, to give of their best at the present time, when it is essential in the nation's interests that everyone gives of his or her best, if we can only say to them, "You cannot get a decent home for four, five, 10, 11 or even 12 years"?

Some of these people, who are waiting in Edinburgh for houses, cannot expect them before 12 years have elapsed. During that time, of course, they will have to watch the tragedy going on, of which we are familiar, of the conditions in which they live getting worse, the lives of their children being wasted, and these children being taken over and over again to hospital, because they cannot be removed to somewhere where it is more healthy to live. How can we expect men to increase their production, which we are asking them to do and which, in fact, we must do, if they are left in conditions in which they cannot even hope to sleep and rest decently and under which they have to witness this tragic procession of events year after year? In Edinburgh according to the survey taken in 1946 over 50,000 new houses are required.