Part of Orders of the Day — Housing Bill – in the House of Commons am 12:00 am ar 13 Ebrill 1964.
The Amendment seeks to remove subsection (1) from the Clause, but not to remove subsection (2) under which the S.S.H.A. would retain the power of compulsory purchase on behalf of the Housing Corporation. I think it is the intention of hon. Gentleman opposite to remove the other power of compulsory purchase, powers for building functions, which are proposed in subsection (1). The hon. Gentleman the Member for Central Ayrshire (Mr. Manuel) said that I envisaged some dispute, and asked for examples and cases.
I must make it clear that I do not envisage any dispute. That is the theme of what I am saying. I do not think there need be any dispute between the S.S.H.A. and a local authority. I agree with what hon. Members have said, that in a large number of the cases, normal cases, the local authority will be interested, and interested enough to carry out the compulsory purchase itself. It was only in explaining some cases which we visualise and explaining the word "unwilling" for the hon. Member for Glasgow, Craigton (Mr. Millan) that I went into the kind of circumstances in which we foresaw that the use of the compulsory purchase power by the S.S.H.A. itself would be helpful.
We are here talking about functions which the S.S.H.A. has only recently assumed and which it is increasingly in the future to operate. We certainly do not know of conflicts and disputes, and we sincerely hope that we shall not encounter any in the future, because we do not visualise them.
Pursuing what hon. Members have said, I can foresee situations in which under the functions which I have described the S.S.H.A. will be building houses for incoming workers or for overspill from other areas. Again, in the majority of cases the local authorities will be interested enough to carry out the compulsory purchase themselves, but in some cases they may be very busy with their own compulsory purchase and housing problems on behalf of their own residents and may not be sufficiently interested—they will, of course, be interested if people are coming to their area—in persons in these categories coming from outside to wish to carry the burden of the compulsory purchase procedure. If they are, so much to the good. Then these powers will not be needed. But if they are not, then the local authority can feel that it will not be burdened with yet more work, because the S.S.H.A. itself will be able to carry it out.