Orders of the Day — Housing (Amendment) Bill

Part of the debate – in the House of Commons at 12:00 am on 27 November 1972.

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Photo of Gerald Kaufman Gerald Kaufman , Manchester Ardwick 12:00, 27 November 1972

In these debates on housing improvement, I have discovered that pressure on the Government pays. That is why my hon. Friends and I have tabled the amendment to the motion, and why I warn the Minister that what he may reject tonight, assuming that he is unwise enough to do so, he will have to come back to the House and accept. That is the history of this legislation.

I remember, during the Second Reading of the original Housing Bill of 1971, pressing for the city of Manchester to be included in the provisions of that Bill, I pointed out, as has been pointed out tonight, that many areas not included in the provisions of that Bill had housing conditions which were far better than those of my constituents and those of the constituents of my hon. Friend the Member for Manchester, Gorton (Mr. Marks).

I pressed the Minister on Second Reading. I was turned down. I pressed him repeatedly month after month. I was turned down. Suddenly, the Government capitulated. We were included because our unemployment rate had risen so much under this Government that we were declared an intermediate area. That capitulation took place at the time of this year's Budget. However, by then much of the time for the increased improvement grants had elapsed. Therefore in the Budget debate I asked for the time limit for these increased improvement grants to be extended. I received no reply in the debate. I wrote to the Minister. The Minister did not reply to me, but he planted a Question on his hon. Friend the Member for Rossendale (Mr. Bray) in which he announced that what I had asked for would be done. This Bill is the outcome.

Now that my previous campaigns on increased improvements for the city of Manchester and on the extended time limit for them have succeeded, I come again to ask for more. I ask for more for the same two reasons that I put forward originally. The reason for bringing the 1971 Housing Act before the House was to provide employment for Manchester building workers on a long-term basis. We have an intolerable unemployment position among building workers in Manchester. There are 2,560 of them out of work, and there are only 143 vacancies. It means that there are 18 unemployed building workers for every vacancy in the city—[Interruption.] The hon. Member for Enfield, West (Mr. Parkinson) may laugh—