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Housing

I suppose that a backhanded compliment is better than no compliment at all. I will move on, if I may. I want to draw the House’s attention to a third aspect of Mr. McDonald’s evidence. He was persistently asked what he thought the cost to the consumer would be of the packs in the form that the Secretary of State proposes. After what might in other circumstances be described as some shilly-shallying, he said:"““It could be anything from nothing to several hundred pounds.””" He could provide no evidence that the packs would reduce the transaction time—the whole point of introducing them in the first place—he could not estimate the cost to the consumer, and he had to admit that the voluntary home condition report was going to be a dead letter. It is no wonder that the gloom among the Government has spread in the last few months as this situation has built to its climax.