asked the Minister of Health whether a scheme has recently been prepared for the building of colliery villages in Notts, Derbyshire, and elsewhere to the value of £1,000,000 or more; and what encouragement or financial assistance is the Government affording?

I am glad to say that an important scheme is being undertaken by an association of colliery owners, who are forming an industrial housing association, based upon the principle of trading without profit, with a programme which includes the erection of some 10,000 houses at the rate of 2,000 a year without any form of Government subsidy. The association proposes to make application for a loan from the Public Works Loan Board. I welcome this scheme as an indication that some of the large employers of labour recognise an obligation to provide houses for their work-people, and I hope the example will be largely followed.