Orders of the Day — HOUSING, Etc. (No. 2) [MONEY].

Part of the debate – in the House of Commons at on 30 April 1923.

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Photo of Mr Walter Elliot Mr Walter Elliot , Lanark

My right hon. Friend the Minister of Health will correct me if I am wrong, but I believe that such a claim has indeed been urged by the Welsh Members, and that it was, as a matter of fact, turned down by the English Ministry in respect of the general argument for a flat rate throughout the country, to which argument I am now about to address myself. Let us consider what the case for a regional differentiation is. It is that costs vary between one part of the country and another, but if we once admit that principle and decide thereupon to carry out regional differentiation, it cannot stop with the national demand made by the Scottish Members. The London Members have a strong case for differentiation, the Welsh Members have a strong case, and the Members from Liverpool bring forward most unanswerable arguments about the cost of building in that city; and let us not suppose that those parts of the country which are being left out would not perhaps equally be able to discover very powerful arguments why they, too, should receive a higher subsidy than is being proposed in this Bill. Such a proposal means nothing more or less than a reimposition of control from Whitehall, to be rid of which once and for all was one of the strongest desires of the local authorities. The complaint of delays by the Central Authority, the complaint of unsuitable material, the complaint of excessive fees for various officials—all this and more was brought forward with great strength by the local authorities.