asked the Minister for Local Government whether he will co-ordinate a planned drive to provide 24,000 houses per year in consultation with local authorities and the building industry.
12.
Ceisteanna—Questions. Oral Answers. - Housing Drive.
11.
andMr. Bruton asked the Minister for Local Government if his Department have prepared projections for local authority housing for the next two years; and the number of houses to be provided in relation to the present figure.
With your permission, a Cheann Comhairle, I propose to take Questions Nos. 11 and 12 together.
Between 1st April, 1960, and 31st March, 1970, just under 100,000 houses will have been built, 95,000 reconstructed and 60,000 improved by the installation of water and/or sewerage at a total cost of the order of £430 million, including subsidies. Every year since 1961/62, with one exception, has seen a higher number of houses completed than in the preceding year. This programme has resulted in an improvement not only in the physical quality of our housing but in a reduction in overcrowding—the average occupancy rate has fallen from 1.19 persons per room in 1926 and 1.01 persons in 1946 to .90 persons in 1966.
The Government's intentions with regard to the continuance and expansion of this programme are set out in the White Paper, Housing in the Seventies, which states their basic objective of ensuring that, as far as the resources of the economy permit, every family can obtain a house of good standard at a price or rent they can afford. Chapter 1 of the White Paper indicates that, in order to meet this objective, about 15,000 to 17,000 houses a year, including about 5,500 local authority houses, will be required by the mid-1970's and it states the assumptions on which this estimate is based.
Within these totals, separate projections on an annual basis have not been made for local authority houses. The Government's intention is, subject to the availability of resources, to increase the present output of dwellings, to the levels envisaged in the White Paper.
The paper states that, in the event that a level of building above these estimates is found to be needed, the projection will not be regarded as limiting output.
Would the Minister agree that the projections for housing in the 1970s are now in need of revision and that the need is far greater than was envisaged when that White Paper was first published? What extra measures are being taken in the Department in this respect at present?
The projections in the White Paper are realistic and attainable.