Housing Repairs and Rents Bill (Allocation of Time)

Part of the debate – in the House of Commons at 12:00 am on 22 February 1954.

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Photo of Mr Ralph Morley Mr Ralph Morley , Southampton, Itchen 12:00, 22 February 1954

Saturdays would be quite welcome. I hope that the two hon. Gentlemen will see that their arguments are validated in this connection by urging their leaders to provide more than three sittings per week during the four weeks remaining to the Bill.

I do not know why this Bill is being hurried through at this rapid rate. Is it that the Government want to get the Bill through and then to have a General Election immediately afterwards before the landlords send out their notices to the tenants about the raising of the rents, or is it they have decided, after all, to stop in office until 1956—as they are entitled to do—and try to rush this Bill through as quickly as possible, so that as much time as possible will elapse between the service by the landlords of the notice of increased rents and the General Election in 1956 in the hope that the people may have forgotten or may have ceased to care what has happened in the interval?

Finally, I want to emphasise the point made by my right hon. Friend the Member for Ebbw Vale (Mr. Bevan), who quite rightly pointed out that when this Bill becomes law and as soon as the notice of increased rent is served upon the tenants, spontaneous organisations—and I emphasise the word "spontaneous"—will spring up in order to resist this Bill. The Communist Party of Great Britain, always looking for a grievance to exploit, will on this occasion have a real grievance and will be able to say that this Bill to give outdoor relief to the landlords was rushed through the House of Commons by a property-owning Tory majority, desirous of doing something to help their fellow property owners.

It is, I believe, a very bad political blunder on the part of the Government to place this Motion on the Order Paper, especially as they are going to give a very short time for the remainder of the Bill in Committee. hon. Members will recall that my right hon. Friend the Member for South Shields (Mr. Ede) first entered this House when he won a by- election at Mitcham, defeating a Cabinet Minister, the then Minister of Health. He won that by-election in what was considered a safe Conservative seat against a Cabinet Minister because the Government at that time had signified their intention to amend the Rent Acts in order to enable landlords to increase the rents. The anger aroused by that proposal swept that unfortunate Cabinet Minister out of the House, and he did not secure a seat in the House during the rest of his life.

The suggestion of rushing this Bill through the House for the remainder of its stages might well mean that even Bromley would become a marginal seat if there were an election next year. I hope even at this stage that hon. and right hon. Gentlemen opposite may have second thoughts about this Motion.