Welsh Affairs

Part of the debate – in the House of Commons at 12:00 am on 11 February 1957.

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Photo of Mr Roderic Bowen Mr Roderic Bowen , Cardiganshire 12:00, 11 February 1957

Perhaps the hon. Member was not present earlier when I made some observations on that point. My view is that all the material required to enable the Government to make up their minds on the point is now in their possession. I cannot see how a Royal Commission can do anything but hold up the matter indefinitely.

The hon. Member for Cardiff, North referred to the burden of responsibility. I have not heard any complaint about that from the Scottish Office. The hon. Gentleman made a reference to the position of civil servants. We should remember that Government Departments exist for the purpose of government and not for the purposes of civil servants, and what we have really to consider here is what will be good government for Wales.

It seems to me that the crux of the matter is touched upon in two paragraphs in the Council's Report. Paragraph 16 says: There is no Minister of the Crown with executive responsibility extending over Wales alone. Paragraph 183 says: The greatest single failing in the present organisation is that there is far too little co-ordination is of the activities of the Departments operating in Wales. This is a feature of the problem which has impressed itself upon the Panel time and again during the course of their investigations. On a previous occasion in a Welsh debate I referred to the fact that Wales was now suffering from piecemeal, halfhearted and disjointed devolution. and the Report of the Panel clearly indicates the truth of my assertion. It would appear that there has never been any overall attempt to decide what form of devolution or what extent of devolution was appropriate for Wales. Thus we get a confused and conflicting picture as we go from one Department to another. I commend what the Panel has to say about the present confusion in relation to the types of delegation and the extent of delegation in different Departments.

My main complaint, however, is a different matter. It is one thing to have bad administration, for policy decisions not to be put properly into operation and for Acts of Parliament not to be effectively implemented. That in itself is a matter of concern, and I certainly do not think that the position in Wales is as satisfactory as it should be. However, what concerns me even more than that is that there should be no Minister with an overall responsibility for Wales in relation to executive decisions. However efficient the Civil Service devolution became, it would not do away with that difficulty. After all, the function of the civil servant is not to make decisions but to implement them. I believe that there should be a great improvement in respect of the implementation of decisions, but at the same time I believe that if Welsh interests as a whole are to be considered, and if Wales as a unit is to receive consideration, there should be a Minister with executive powers and the duty to exercise overall supervision over Government activities in the Principality. I hope the Government will apply their minds quickly and sympathetically to the matter.

I wish to associate myself with what was said by the hon. Member for Abertillery (The Rev. Ll. Williams) about Tryweryn. I believe that what has happened at Tryweryn is the Towy Valley technique exercised by a large corporation instead of a Government Department. Just as the first Minister for Welsh Affairs relieved the anxieties of the people of the Towy Valley in this respect, I hope that the right hon. Gentleman will take some steps to relieve the anxieties of the people of Tryweryn.

In the Report of Government Action, stress is properly laid upon the action of local authorities, with the assistance of the central authority, in relation to social amenities and the provision of a basic standard of living in their areas. I represent a county which is faced with special difficulties in carrying out its functions in this regard. I share a doubtful distinction in this respect with four or five other hon. Members representing Welsh counties. All local authorities are today faced with great difficulties in relation to the rate position, but four or five counties in Wales are in a position totally different from the other counties, and their difficulties are very much greater, so great that unless something is done the satisfactory carrying out of the vital functions of local government in those spheres will become virtually impossible. The position is as dramatic as that.

To illustrate the point which I am attempting to make, I want to give one or two facts and figures. I do so hoping that they will influence the Minister when, during the course of the week, he makes his statement upon local government finance as a whole. I do not want to deal with the general position of local government finance, or the problems of local government finance throughout the country, but there are three or four Welsh rural counties which are in grave difficulties.

One example is the County of Cardigan. Under the new assessments, Cardiganshire's Exchequer equalisation grant was reduced by over £100,000. The result was that, while there was an increase in county rateable values of 156 per cent., the county precept was reduced by only is. 6d. in the £, so that the rate burden upon the community in the county as a whole was increased very considerably. The position has been accentuated by the operation of Section 8 of the Local Government (Miscellaneous Provisions) Act. 1955, the effect of which was to reduce the Exchequer equalisation grant by £36,888, which in rate poundage amounted to 1s. 7½d.

In one borough in my constituency, the Borough of Aberystwyth, the situation is accentuated still further. It has the honour and the pleasure of being the home of two of our national institutions, our National Library and the University College. The loss in rate income, because of the operation of Section 8 of the 1955 Act, in relation to those two institutions alone is £34,869. The rate poundage loss is 3s. 9d.; that is to say, the rates are 21s. 3d. and, but for this loss, would have been 17s. 6d. I hope that when the right hon. Gentleman makes his statement about local government finance he will bear those factors in mind.

Let me give one other illustration of the type of difficulty which occurs. It is the case of New Quay in Cardiganshire. All the difficulties about the county as a whole which I have enumerated apply, of course, to New Quay, but in places of that kind—and it is one of many examples in my constituency—the situation is worse. In New Quay there are 478 rateable premises—both dwelling houses and shops. Of those, 115 are occupied by single persons; that is to say, about one-third of the dwelling houses are occupied by single persons, the overwhelming majority being elderly people not at work and not in receipt of an income other than their pension, or that derived from their life savings. Mr. Deputy-Speaker, you can well imagine the hardship which these difficulties impose on people in that category.

There are two other matters to which I want to refer. One arises from paragraph 110 of the Report on Government Action which refers to Welsh Farm Institutes and to the question of providing two-year diploma courses. Apparently the Council received a Report from a Committee which sat under the chairmanship of Professor Seaborne Davies. Paragraph 188 of the Report refers to the Working Party set up to study the problems of rural education in Mid-Wales. I hope that before the end of the day we will hear precisely what has happened about Professor Seaborne Davies's Report and about the Working Party's Report on rural education in Mid-Wales.