Orders of the Day — Depressed Areas (Development and Improvement) Bill.

Part of the debate – in the House of Commons at on 3 December 1934.

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Photo of Hon. Oliver Stanley Hon. Oliver Stanley , Westmorland

One specific reference is made to the small holdings scheme of a local authority. Then there may be the development of a local amenity which the local authority would be entitled to do, but for which it would not be entitled to receive any Government grant. In a case of that kind the Commissioner would be entitled to give a contribution. But perhaps hon. Members, if they have specific points to put, will put them during the course of the Debate, and of course we will give an answer to them in the reply.

Clause 2 of the Bill deals with finance, and it would be, I think, a convenience to hon. Members if I postponed discussion of the mere technical provisions as to the control which Parliament will exercise over its finance and the way it will be exercised, until we come to deal with the Financial Resolution. The general scheme of finance is one which was explained to the House on a previous occasion. A fund is set up for the use of these Commissioners, and, in the first place, a sum of £2,000,000 is paid into the fund. We believe that that, at any rate, gives them sufficient financial assistance with which to inaugurate any experiments which they have in mind upon a sufficiently considerable scale, but we do not pretend, and I do not believe any- body in the House could be able to assume, what their financial requirements are likely to be. It depends so largely upon the success of their own work, upon the energy and enthusiasm with which they are able to initiate the schemes and the success with which they are able to bring them to a conclusion. Therefore, we thought that the commonsense thing to do was to start them off with a sufficiently large sum, so that they would not feel a financial handicap in commencing any experiment which they thought advisable, and then, if and when they desired any more financial assistance, it should be for the Government and the House to decide how much they should have in view of the work they had already accomplished and the proposals which they were able to put forward. I think that the financial provisions were rather misunderstood in the first instance, but I think now that people have realised more clearly their full implications and are satisfied that that is a business and common-sense way of dealing with an expenditure which is so extremely difficult to estimate.