asked the Minister of Health how many horses up to date are approved; how many are under construction; and how many have been completed under the lousing Act, 1923?

Mr. GREENWOOD:

161,441 houses have been authorised to date under the Housing. Etc., Act, 1923. On the 1st September, the latest date for which information is available. 26,347 houses had been completed, and a further 50,524 were in course of construction.

Mr. SOMERVILLE:

Is it not a fact that a very much larger number of houses have been built hr private enterprise, in addition to these subsidised houses?

Hoar many of these houses were built under the present Minister of Health, and, can photographs of them be circulated before the House disperses?

Mr. GREENWOOD:

A large number of the houses for which I have given the figures were built under the present Minister.

Can the hon. Gentleman give the exact number? Is it two or four?

Can the Parliamentary Secretary give an answer to the last supplementary question, as to the number of houses built under the 1923 Act?

Mr. GREENWOOD:

I can assure the hon. Member that the figures I have given are correct. The greater proportion of these houses actually built or under construction have been built this year under the regime of my right hon. Friend the Minister of Health.

Could the hon. Gentleman inform me how many of these houses were built under the Chamberlain Act, and how many under the Wheatley Act?

Mr. GREENWOOD:

All these houses have been built under the Chamberlain Act during the time my right hon. Friend has been in office.

Can the hon. Gentleman state, then, if I am correct in saying that, when he said that these houses were built under the present regime, he meant that it was under the Conservative Act of the last Parliament?

Can the hon. Gentleman tell us how many of these houses were built to be sold, and not to let?

asked the Minister of Health if he will consider the advisability of requesting the local authorities to allow builders who are erecting houses under the 1923 Act to be allowed the full period mentioned in the Act, October, 1925, instead of any shortened period.

I consider it desirable in administering the Housing Acts of 1923 and 1924, that local authorities should only undertake to give subsidy in respect of houses likely to be completed within a reasonable time. It is always open to a builder who finds he is unable, owing to causes beyond his control, to comply with such a condition, to make an application for an extension of time, and I have no doubt that local authorities would act reasonably in dealing with such an application.