Leasehold Property

Part of the debate – in the House of Commons at 12:00 am on 30 April 1953.

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Photo of Mr Roderic Bowen Mr Roderic Bowen , Cardiganshire 12:00, 30 April 1953

He has certainly used that phrase, but he did not go on to say that the cure for the disease was enfranchisement. Were that his view I would have expected it to be expressed in no uncertain terms. The same applies to the right hon. and learned Gentleman who was the Attorney-General in the Socialist Government. So far as I know, the right hon. and learned Gentleman the Member for St. Helens (Sir H. Shawcross) has never indicated that he is in favour of leasehold enfranchisement.

Further than that, the Socialist Party, in its legislative programme during the years 1945 to 1950—I am making no complaint about it, I am merely indicating the inconsistency—acted in many instances in a way which is in conflict with the conception of leasehold enfranchisement, such as in the provisions in the Town and Country Planning Act, and the New Towns Act and their attitude towards the selling of council houses. In their evidence to us the Committee of the Haldane Society never put forward leasehold enfranchisement as a cure for the ills of the present leasehold system.