asked the Minister of Health which London boroughs are undertaking the temporary division of large houses into dwellings; the number of properties concerned in each case and the anticipated resulting number of dwellings; what proportion of the dwellings will not be self-contained, will not be furnished with a separate w.c. and will not include the use of a bathroom, or only the use of a bathroom in common with two or three other dwellings, respectively; and whether this plan devised last year when persons were being rendered homeless by V-weapon damage, can now be reviewed and put on a better footing.

With the exception of the City of London, Battersea, Bermondsey. and Poplar, all the Metropolitan boroughs are at present engaged on a programme of adapting houses for occupation by more than one family. The total number of properties now being adapted is 1,341 and it is anticipated that 4,219 dwellings will be produced as a result of this work. About 95 per cent. of the resulting dwellings are not self-contained. In general, over the Metropolitan area: Some 50 per cent. are without separate w.c.'s.Some 15 per cent. are without bathrooms.Some 80 per cent. have shared bathrooms.The following table shows the number of properties being adapted in the various Metropolitan Boroughs:

Local authority.	Number of houses being adapted.	Resulting number of dwellings.
West and North West—
Chelsea	106	417
Fulham	136	462
Hammersmith	38	130
Hampstead	100	331
Kensington	55	212
Paddington	50	170
St. Marylebone	66	174
St. Pancras	40	136
Westminster	116	335
East—
Bethnal Green	4	8
City of London	—	—
Finsbury	10	22
Hackney	20	50
Holborn	2	10
Islington	100	236
Poplar	—	—
Shoreditch	15	45
Stepney	51	106
Stoke Newington	13	31
South East—
Bermondsey	—	—
Deptford	16	23
Greenwich	55	181
Lewisham	25	71
Woolwich	4	11
South West—
Battersea	—	—
Camberwell	49	107
Lambeth	23	43
Southwark	100	350
Wandsworth	147	558
	1,341	4,219

The three Metropolitan Boroughs not now engaged on a programme have done such work in the past. All local authori- ties will do more where there are suitable properties and when labour becomes available. The aim is to provide the greatest amount of accommodation in the shortest time and to this end the adaptations are, in the majority of cases, being carried out as the first stage toward conversion into self-contained dwellings.