NO FACILITIES FOR SQUATTERS

Press, Volume LXXXII, Issue 24981, 16 September 1946, Page 5

NO FACILITIES FOR SQUATTERS

Minister’s Advice To

Local Bodies

“ASPECT OF ORGANISED LAWLESSNESS” (N.Z. Press Association—Copyright)

(Ree. » p.m.) LONDON. Septe«*«r 14. The Minister of Health (Mr Aneurin Bevan) has sent a letter to local authorities in England and Wales requesting that they should withhold all facilities from squatters on the seizure or occupation of premises. Gas and electricity should not be provided and should be cut off, if available, at the time ef occupation.

Mr Bevan’s requests are based on Government policy. Mr Bevan advised that empty premises should be locked and the police summoned if there was any suspicion of attempted seizure. Immediate legal action to secure eviction should be taken where properties were seized.

The Government was confident, Mr Bevan said, that local authorities would defend the principles of social justice on which the system of the allocation of available housing accommodation was based. Private individuals could not be allowed to usurp the responsibility of local authorities for allocating houses to the most needy families. The authorities had allotted a majority of the 192,000 homes which so far had become available under the rehousing programme to the most needy families after careful investigation. A public authority could not permit movement, which assumed a clear aspect of organised lawlessness, to override the claims of those who were waiting a long time for houses. The Government, in the meantime, was continuing its housing programme with the utmost speed.