I do not think we can upset the allocations made because they have been very carefully worked out and we have every reason to believe that most local authorities will be able to fulfil obligations during the course of 1950, but I am thinking of one or two local authorities which are having difficulty in getting sites ready in time and, as we are most anxious to get on with the housing programme over the whole of Scotland, we are not going to wait on slow-moving authorities getting sites ready. If they have not the sites ready it may be necessary to take some of the houses away from these slow-moving authorities and to give them to other local authorities. Certainly that does not apply specially to Edinburgh; it will apply to other local authorities also.

My hon. Friend the Member for North Edinburgh (Mr. Willis) mentioned there had been a rather alarming fall in the labour force in Edinburgh. It is perfectly true. Edinburgh had a large number of temporary houses which were only completed last year, and when they were completed there was a migration of that labour force out to the Lothians to build houses for miners and agricultural workers. In some respects it was a very good thing that we were able to get that labour diverted from the cities out to the areas which were probably rather less attractive for building workers so as to get on with the agricultural programme and the programme for the miners. We need more building labour in the country areas to meet the clamant need of houses for agricultural workers.