Orders of the Day — Housing (White Paper)

Part of the debate – in the House of Commons at 12:00 am on 19 July 1971.

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Photo of Mr Peter Walker Mr Peter Walker , Worcester 12:00, 19 July 1971

Perhaps it is objective. Its editorial used the following words : We have mucked about with the problem for too long. We have had controls that kept rents too low to pay for repairs. Or we have scrapped controls and priced people out on to the streets. We have built council houses for the under-privileged—and made a special privileged class of their tenants. The Tories have a plan for ending the unfairness. They want to shift subsidies from properties to people, even if that does involve means tests. From each according to his ability : to each according to his need. In its editorial yesterday, the Observer said : The basic principle underlying the Government's 'fair deal' for housing deserves a warm welcome. … The result should mean less waste, more fairness, and better care of the nation's stock of property. I am aware that the right hon. Member for Grimsby (Mr. Crosland) is not keen on anyone quoting from the New Statesman. Previously, the right hon. Gentleman has commented on the quality and manner of its observations. For that reason, it must have been a relief to the right hon. Gentleman to find that the New Statesman's comment this time was not written by his right hon. Friend the Member for Coventry, East but by a former colleague of his, much respected in the House when he was here, Mr. Christopher Price. The following is his general summary of a view on the White Paper which the Labour Party described as "reactionary". Mr. Price writes : Mr. Walker's White Paper which abolishes existing housing subsidies and introduces a national rent rebate scheme is a serious effort to solve three problems which Labour failed to tackle between 1964 and 1970. First, it attempts to clear up the chaotic jungle of existing subsidies ; secondly, it tries to provide a system of helping all those who need rebate, whether they rent their house from the local council or a private landlord, and thirdly, it is designed to concentrate housing subsidies on slum clearance. Those are the comments of Mr. Christopher Price——