The Minister of Health has not taken up the challenge
presented to him by Captain Ernest Marples, M.P., in the matter of the accuracy of a statement by the Minister on Housing. The question is of some importance, and I have looked up the relevant references for myself. Here they are :
MR. BEVAN : "We have built in the first two and a-half years at the end of this war more houses than were built in ten years at the end of the 1914-1918 war—and that in addition to repair- ing all the war damage."—Hansard for December ath, 1947.
MR. BEVAN : "The following are the figures from January, 1919, to September, 1939": [amounting for the nine years and nine months to September, 1928, to 1,192,7201
Houses, including temporary houses completed between April, 1945 and December, 1947-336,771.—Monthly Digest of Statistics, January, 1948.
My figures do not precisely tally with Captain Marples', but the result is substantially the same. Not being mathematically-minded, I find myself foundered. I wish Mr. Bevan would help.
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