British Transport Commission

Part of the debate – in the House of Commons at 12:00 am on 18 October 1950.

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Photo of Mr Peter Thorneycroft Mr Peter Thorneycroft , Monmouth 12:00, 18 October 1950

I am aware of that. As long as the right hon. Gentleman means to give the pledge which, I understand, was the substance of his intervention—[HON. MEMBERS: "No."]. The interjection was entirely unwarranted unless he meant that. If he does not mean that I can only say I have never heard a more irrelevant interjection. It has been quoted against me that I forgot the C licences. I did. I thought that the right hon. Gentleman was about to abolish them. But if he assures us they are to go on—that there will be full freedom for a man to carry his own goods on the King's highway in his own vehicle—then, of course, I withdraw that part of my remarks.

The other thing which is often said about the Road Haulage Executive is this. It is said that the wicked Conservatives are always plotting to take away the profitable part of the transport industry—that is, road haulage—and leave the nationalised concern with only the unprofitable part. That is the most extraordinary conception of the reasons for nationalisation—to take the road hauliers in, in order to carry the loss on the railways. It is a lunatic conception. It would be like David carrying Goliath. Nobody who knows anything about transport problems would think it at all possible.

But I want to know if it is the profitable part—whether road haulage under the Road Haulage Executive is profitable. I see the net receipts were £1,431,721, but that is insufficient to earn even the interest upon the capital. Their capital is estimated in the notes to the accounts at some £49 million, and the 3 per cent. on that is £1,467,450. If they cannot even earn the interest on their capital, let alone any share of the central administrative charges, let alone anything for reserve or capital redemption of any kind, it seems to me that the roads, too, are getting "into the red." It will be a case of the blind leading the blind, if I am not mixing my analogies too much. I wish that these reports were produced in a form from which we could see what was profitable and what was not. I hope the hon. Gentleman will deal with that in his reply.

But if they are profitable why is it that the Transport Commission are perpetually pushing up the charges? Wherever the Road Haulage Executive have got a monopoly—and in parts they have: in Scotland, and in many parts—they put them up rather savagely. I have a letter from a farmer in Scotland who says that the carrying rate for carrying full loads of hay from Stirling to North Argyll has gone up from 32s. to 55s.—a modest 75 per cent. increase. If all this is profitable I must say they are screwing everything they can out of the public.

What we propose to do is this. We propose to give free enterprise a chance in this road haulage industry. That is the right way to tackle this question of charges for road transport. We wish to have a wide and growing number of free road hauliers. Further, I see no reason why the railways should not own a certain amount of road haulage. They always used to; there is no reason why they should not in the future. I see it is suggested that road haulage should be removed from the railways, and that even the right of the railways to clear the goods from rail heads should be taken away and handed over to the Road Haulage Executive. That seems to be a policy of disintegration rather than of integration. The right way of dealing with such questions as that is to do it in the regions, and not in Lord Hurcomb's office in Whitehall. I see no reason why the railways should not have a certain amount of road transport, with free enterprise, and the traffic carried on in the cleaner atmosphere of competition.