Part of Orders of the Day — HIRE-PURCHASE (No. 2) BILL [Lords] – in the House of Commons at 12:00 am on 24 June 1964.
Mr George Darling
, Sheffield, Hillsborough
12:00,
24 June 1964
I do not know why the Parliamentary Secretary keeps dragging in the issue of consumer protection. I think that he is fascinated with the words. He seems to be under the impression that he understands what they mean. We will have to disabuse him of that before we finish.
In putting forward this Clause, we have no concern for the arrangements which finance houses make under present legislation—their split-minded activities, as the hon. Member calls them. We are not asking for tax exemption for finance companies or for tax relief for them. I could not care less if they do not get it. We are asking for tax relief for the customers. When the hon. Member says that we should not deal with fiscal questions in this legislation, I think he has the thing the wrong way round. Unless we include this Clause in the Bill we shall be using the Bill to stop customers on h.p. loans, so to speak, from getting the benefit of existing tax Laws.
I am sure it was never the intention in the Finance Acts to deny customers of h.p. loans the facilities for tax relief given to people getting personal loans from banks or insurance societies. As the hon. Member has said, the finance companies can make this arrangement within our existing tax law now, because they do it above the £300 limit and therefore do not get caught by h.p. legislation.
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