asked the Minister of Health whether, in view of the failure of county councils adequately to administer the Housing (Rural Workers) Act, 1926, and of the fact that applications for assistance will cease to be entertained after 1931, he proposes to take any further steps to improve the condition of rural housing or to secure more energetic administration of the Act?

As regards the Act of 1926 I am prepared, as I have been in the past, to consider any representations that special circumstances exist in any particular case which would justify me in declaring that the council of the county district shall be the local authority for the purposes of the Act. As regards wider measures for the improvement of rural housing, I would ask the right hon. Member to await the introduction of the housing legislation which is now in preparation.