HOUSE-BUILDING IN BRITAIN

Press, Volume LXXXII, Issue 24911, 26 June 1946, Page 7

HOUSE-BUILDING IN BRITAIN

MINISTRY OF WORKS INQUIRY SPEEDIER DISTRIBUTION OF SUPPLIES LONDON, June 24. The Ministry of Works is to undertake a full Inquiry into the supply and distribution pf bricks, timber, tiles, and all other, components for housebuilding, with the object .of speeding up the British housing programme and removing bottlenecks in supply.' The Government is to establish an expert -ommittee under the chairmanship of Sir E. D. Simon, deputy-chair-man of the Central Council for Works and Buildings, to deal with the inquiry Whieh will investigate particularly the organisation and operation or builders' merchants and their trade associations, One of the objects of the inquiry is stated to be a reduction in unjustified middlemen’s profits. The modernisation and expansion, of blitzed factories in the Midlands will provide employment for an additional 69.000 workers, as the plans materialise. It is estimated that the cost of rebuilding and extending factories-will be £6.500.000. More than 10.000,000 square feet of space requisitioned by the Government in Midlands factories during the war was recently released, and 43 Government factories built for war production have been allocated on a priority basis tq blitzed. Arms A considerable industrial boom is anticipated in the Midlands during the next five years as a result of the expansion and reconstruction.