Orders of the Day — Public Works Loans Bill

Part of the debate – in the House of Commons at 12:00 am on 12 November 1952.

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Photo of Mr John Boyd-Carpenter Mr John Boyd-Carpenter , Kingston upon Thames 12:00, 12 November 1952

The general system under which the Board will operate—I know the hon. Gentleman has great experience of it—will be precisely as before. I think that the decision to exploit all the sources from which the local authorities can borrow, including the stock market, will be generally accepted as a step in the right direction, but I must warn the House not to magnify the importance of this development. It must not be thought that we intend to exclude a number of authorities from the Fund and force them on to the stock market. That is my answer to the right hon. Gentleman the Member for South Shields (Mr. Ede).

The local authorities have a big programme of commitments authorised by this Government and by the previous Government. While they are in this situation, it is clear that they must be given access to all the sources of finance, including the Local Loans Fund as now. That is my answer to the hon. Member for Islington, East (Mr. E. Fletcher). We are simply adding the stock market to the sources of finance that will be available to them, but we have to see the extent to which such issues will be practicable and—this is the key to the whole thing—we intend to proceed in agreement with the authorities concerned, and we shall have regard to the capacity of the market to accommodate local authority borrowing on reasonable terms.