Orders of the Day — Building Control Bill

Part of the debate – in the House of Commons at 12:00 am on 8 December 1965.

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Photo of Sir Albert Costain Sir Albert Costain , Folkestone and Hythe 12:00, 8 December 1965

At least I am avoiding a political broadcast. I would not say which wing of the Labour Party the hon. Lady occupies, but I note that she is very sensitive on this point. The Minister has said that the machine is being overheated. Any industry which has increased production by more than 50 per cent. since 1958—and this cannot be said too often—is bound to create heat. But one does not overcome that heat by putting the brakes on. One overcomes it by lubrication. The truth is that some of the bearings in the industry were beginning to run hot because of the speed of increased efficiency. We admit that. We know that there were temporary shortages of bricks, plasterboard and copper pipe. We have been pressing the Minister on this. But when materials are in short supply the right thing to do is to introduce some positive planning, the sort of planning which the Minister had in mind on 20th November, 1964. This positive planning should have given the industry an opportunity to accelerate.

I would have no objection to the Minister saying that until a future date, because of shortage, no one shall use plasterboard for anything but domestic building without his permission. The Minister is surprised; but the purpose of this is twofold. First of all, it would encourage people to design other building materials in substitution for plasterboard and it would help the housing industry. If I could see anything in this Bill that would increase the building of houses I would give it my support. I do not see anything which persuades me to support it. The great problem in the industry has been that of a shortage of certain materials. Take the case of cement. I would see no objection to the Minister saying, if cement became short, that there should be not more than a certain percentage of cement used in anything but essential domestic buildings.