Greater London (Growth and Development)

Part of the debate – in the House of Commons at 12:00 am on 15 December 1972.

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Photo of Mr Robert Mellish Mr Robert Mellish , Bermondsey 12:00, 15 December 1972

I begin by saying how indebted I am to the leadership of my party, and to my right hon. Friend the Member for Grimsby (Mr. Crosland) in particular, for agreeing that I should intervene in this debate. I know that my right hon. Friend, who has been here throughout the debate, would have liked to make this speech, but he conceded that I should be allowed to intervene because I am a Londoner born and bred in this great city and proud of it.

I would not conceded to anyone outside London or in any other city in the world that there is anything as great as London. That is why I was delighted when my hon. Friend the Member for Acton (Mr. Spearing), having drawn first place in the ballot, decided to talk about London. The problems have been underlined and every hon. Member who has spoken has done so with the expertise that one would expect of any London Member who takes an interest in this great city of ours.

But it needs to be put on record that London is not just a city but is split into a number of areas and suburbs. I am from South-East London. I would not live, for example, in East London if I were paid to do so. East Londoners would not live in my part of London. One of our biggest headaches is when the GLC attempts to transfer East Londoners to South-East London, for example—because they do not want to go. The reverse is true also. So it does matter, rightly or wrongly, what part of London we come from.

But the problem common to all parts of inner London is the great shortage of housing. My hon. Friend the Member for Brixton (Mr. Lipton) reminded us of something we have known for many years. There is not one London Member worth his salt who does not get every day at least one letter about housing—and such letters are real heartaches. That has gone on under all Governments. I am not here to make party political points, although one can do that easily enough. I am here to stress that this is a human problem that has been with us for many decades and must be faced far more realistically than even perhaps in the past.

The Minister for Housing and Construction comes from a family—the Guinness family—which has done a marvellous job in housing. I say to him that all Ministers of Housing should hang over their office desk a notice, "Housing is a social need". If one starts from that point and takes it as one's theme and thesis, far more good comes from one's approach to housing as a Minister. If I criticise the Government, it is because I do not believe that they see it in the way in which we see it. We do not see it as something to be exploited, as a matter from which some profit may be gained, nor as simply something from which certain individuals can gain. We see it from the basic fact that every human being has the right to a roof over his head and that everyone who exploits that right for his own profit must be dealt with and stopped.

There may be arguments about how the problem should be tackled, about State ownership and the rest, but if one does not recognise the social need one will not solve the problem. For example, the hon. Member for Orpington (Mr. Stanbrook) said that the outer London boroughs had made a fair contribution, even today in 1972. But the inner London boroughs are facing an acute situation because they just have not got the land. That is a fact of life. There can be no turning and twisting away from it. It is a fact. Where I live, people still live in densities of 600 and 700 an acre. Does Orpington understand what that means? Thousands of my people still live in places where one toilet is shared by five families.

In order to get land made available, the Government will have to move in. They cannot just leave it to parleying between the various London boroughs. The outer London boroughs have land—how much I cannot say because I have not got the figures. Nor do I indict any individual local authorities. Many of the outer London boroughs have their own housing waiting lists. But I do say that the time has come for the Government to tell the outer London boroughs, "What spare land you have shall be built upon for housing for inner London and the State will intervene so to do."

I would ask the hon. Member for Orpington just how much land the London borough of Bromley has had in its possession but has handed over to private enterprise to build the sort of houses which are out of reach of ordinary persons. My own personal record on housing needs is that when I was a junior Minister at the Ministry of Housing and Local Government we at any rate tried within our limits to free as much land as possible. The hon. Member for Cities of London and Westminster (Mr. Tugendhat), who is not here, got the biggest landfall of all when the Marylebone goods yard was released. Hendon aerodrome was handed over for housing. Incidentally, it was a good job for Hendon that we became the Government in 1964, because the previous Government had decided to hand the aerodrome over for private building. An area at Kidbrooke was also handed over. Yet there is still a lot more land which can and must be made available, and the Government must exercise every effort to see that all available land is found and handed over.

I turn now to the question of housing generally. Again I make no party political point, although, had the Labour Government been returned in 1970, I would have been Minister of Housing and Local Government. I believed then, as now, that the first thing a Government have to do in dealing with the problem of housing finance is to recognise that those boroughs, whether Tory or Labour, which have worked hard on housing and have built and built and built, have got themselves into such appalling debts because of it that they must have immediate relief. Indeed, many of those debts must be wiped out. They cannot go on with the present position of their housing revenue accounts, unable to balance income and expenditure. They are unable to do it without tremendous increases in rents for their people. Therefore, there must be a completely new look at the whole problem of the housing revenue accounts of these boroughs.

Of course, some places in London have no problems of that kind for the simple reason that they have not built houses, and if one does not build houses one does not have such headaches. But those who have built houses—and I come from one borough which has put in a tremendous effort—suffer greatly.

My other theme is the problem of homelessness. My hon. Friend the Member for Holborn and St. Pancras, South (Mrs. Lena Jeger) mentioned that thousands are homeless. It is an indictment of our society. There is not one of us who cannot but feel ashamed of the fact that thousands of people are living without a roof over their heads tonight. Of course, some of these families are problem families, but I say to the Minister that he must take this problem on board and take some serious action about it. It is not a matter for a local borough. I will not name them, but we all know that some boroughs shuffle their problems on to others. They do not give a damn as long as they do not have this problem. It follows, therefore, that this is a regional problem that must be dealt with centrally. If the GLC, or other regional authority, is not prepared to do it, then the Government must take action.

A number of individual boroughs have places for the homeless but very often other boroughs send their own homeless to these centres. These places must be regarded as a base from which more permanent accommodation can be found for the families. Linked with such places, of course, one needs the rehabilitation facilities necessary to get people back to normality.

I wish particularly to refer to a matter which is not just a constituency point—the vast acreage of land now becoming available on the river front. I believe that it probably amounts to about 6,000 acres—several miles of land. The last time such a great amount of land became available to London was in the Fire of London. Sir Christopher Wren then produced a wonderful plan for London. If only he had been allowed to get away with it! But they did not allow him to do so. They let him build a few churches—and lovely churches they are—and the speculators and spivs moved in for the rest and smothered his plans. They did so because the profits from his scheme would not have been so obvious. They built exactly what they wanted to build and how they liked, and began a process which ended up in 19th century London with all the poverty and misery of riverside London which was a disgrace to the people of yesteryear.

Now, in 1972, we have again an opportunity such as that which came after the Great Fire. What shall we do with that land? Shall we do what we did before? Shall we throw the chance away, saying that there are private enterprise people who may be able to develop it well? I hope not. I hope that we shall recognise that we shall not get the same chance again. Once there is one building on the land, that is the finish. It will destroy any real planning. The number of people trying to get hold of the land is reaching astronomical proportions. There are about 6,000 acres, and its value is between £250,000 and £500,000 an acre. That is real money, and the boys are creeping round now trying to get in their planning permissions and to acquire a bit of it.

I want to tell the House how some of this land became derelict. I have been wanting to do so for a very long time but, as Opposition Chief Whip, I have not been allowed to speak. Today I have the chance to do so. A lot of this land is in my constituency, which is why I take a keen interest in it. The Pool of London was dominated by a great firm, Hay's Wharf, which employed several thousand men. It was a firm of considerable repute, but it followed the pattern of London's dockland in that the vast majority of its labour was casual, although a percentage was permanently employed. The firm had labour troubles. Then it looked at its land and decided to get a valuation. It discovered that it was sitting on a goldmine, and it sacked its employees at the drop of a hat. Men with 30 and 40 years' experience were thrown out. They got their redundancy pay all right, but that is about all they got. Men aged 55 and 60 who had worked for the firm for 40 years were sacked. Why? Because the land was so valuable. Today the area is derelict.

Is there any member of the Conservative Party who would defend that? Perhaps it will be understood why some hon. Members on this side of the House feel so passionately about many of the arguments of the ordinary docker. It may be why the docker feels vicious and why at times he seems unreasonable. But would not anyone facing that situation be unreasonable? If any of us was employed on a casual basis and at the end of the day was sacked simply because the land on which he worked was found to be extremely valuable, would not he be justified in being unreasonable?

Hay's Wharf is waiting for a golden picking. I wish that I had the Minister's job. That is one lot who would not get a golden picking. The directors of the company are waiting for planning permissions for hotels and the rest of it, and that will be the realisation of their dream. Incidentally the company was doing good business. The shipping lines were there. The decision was not taken on the basis of their being no shipping. There was plenty of business.

Linked with that there has been the change in the work of dockers generally. We have heard this terrifying word "containerisation". Then there is the redevelopment of Tilbury. As a consequence another vast area of land is now available at the Surrey Docks. Land is also available on the east side of the river.

I am in the position of a man who came to this House representing thousands of dock workers. Today I represent a constituency where there are no docks and no wharves. That has happened in the past three or four years. I have felt helpless. At times I have felt hopeless wondering how to change the situation. I believe sincerely that every Member of Parliament has a duty not only to do the job that he is doing now and not only to his constituents, but to help ensure that this country is at least that much better when he leaves this House than it was when he first came to it. Certainly it is his duty to ensure that it is a better place for his great-grandchildren, who will be able to say that whatever else he did not do in his time, he did a first-class planning job. That is what it is about. That is why we have opportunities of which I want the Minister to take advantage.

I put this to the hon. Gentleman—and I hope that he will answer one question. I read yesterday of the great danger that exists to the Royal Group which is said to be likely to close. Only a short time ago the chairman and secretary of the Port of London Authority said that the Royal Group would not close. We have had enough closures in London to last for a long time.

Surrey Docks is closed. What is the position? How is the land to be developed? I do not object to private enterprise housing. I do not object to housing being built along the river front and owned by individuals. I am an owner-occupier myself. I do not want to deprive others of that privilege. But what I want and what I demand in the name of my people is to have the land developed to a master plan. I do not want anyone and everyone weighing in and building their bit.

I say to the local authorities along the river front that there must be a master plan, and I strongly urge the establishment of a new town development corporation. I should like to see such a body established with Government finance and with the powers to take the land away from its present owners, whether they be Hay's Wharf or the PLA. I should like to see on that corporation the representatives of all local authorities employing the finest architects to produce the finest possible buildings. We might even have a university on the river front. Why not? There are several miles of land. I want to see marinas, amusement and fun. As a matter of fact, my constituents want to see the river. Many of them hardly ever see it. Private enterprise saw to it that the river was exploited for individual gain. I do not complain about that. It is inevitable that there should be industry on the river.

The blunders of yesterday come riding back upon me. We have what is known as the Downtown area, where nearly 3,000 families live. When those flats were built they were said to be the most marvellous ever. Dr. Alfred Salter built them. However it was the biggest planning blunder ever. Flats should never have been built there. As Member of Parliament for the area I have to carry the burden. Not a Friday night goes by without people complaining to me about living there. It is a purely industrial area.

Let us suppose that a wise planner says that it must all go and that those 3,000 families must be swept away to make it a wholly industrial area. Who will do the sweeping away? Will private enterprise do it? Will Orpington do it? I am willing to bet that they will not do it without some direction and without someone with the power to plan this part of London. That is why it is vital to look upon housing as a social need and, in the context of this land, to do a first-class planning job.

I pay an unusual tribute to the Prime Minister. Right hon. and hon. Members opposite will be surprised to hear it. I wrote to the right hon. Gentleman at the beginning of this story when the land became available. I pleaded with him to intervene and to ensure that the land was properly developed. I received a very favourable reply. The Prime Minister was impressed with the argument and said that he would see to it that the Secretary of State for the Environment was made aware of the situation. I wrote to the Secretary of State, and I give him full marks. He decided that the time had come for a strategic planning body to be established. That body has been in existence for about a year and it is on the point of producing strategic plans.

What happens after that? Where do we go from here? Who will do what about land of this sort? I repeat that this is not a party political matter. It is a matter of building for the greatest city in the world and for the future of our grandchildren. The Minister has a great chance. Frankly I wish that I had it. I say that quite genuinely. This is one time that I would like to have been a Minister in order to see this part through and get it started properly.

I hope that the Minister will say today that the Government intend to control this land and this planning and that they will establish a development corporation. I hope that we shall say to all those who are trying to muscle in to get some of the rich pickings, "Get out. This London belongs to the people. For the people, it will be built."