Control of Office and Industrial Development Bill

Part of Ballot for Notices of Motions – in the House of Commons at 12:00 am on 14 April 1965.

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Photo of Mr Richard Thompson Mr Richard Thompson , Croydon South 12:00, 14 April 1965

If I overlooked that at this stage it was because in all the mass of verbiage which floats over this subsection it seemed a rather exiguous gain. But it was something, and I retract anything which I have said which might imply that the right hon. Gentlemen never gave way on anything.

As the right hon. Gentleman is clearly not disposed to give way any further, he could help us if he would reaffirm his intention that his officials will interpret their powers, in judging applications for office development permits, as flexibly as possible. My hon. Friend the Member for Chippenham put in a plea for flexibility. If we cannot have anything written into the Bill let the right hon. Gentleman say, with the greatest emphasis at his command, that marginal cases which come up really will be considered not only with reference to the Distribution of Industry Act.

I accept that that is the main objective, but in the case of a vast conurbation like London, where vast numbers of people carry on all sorts of trades and activities; where people come despite what the planners may wish them to do because there are high wages and good jobs available; where it is very difficult to persuade them not to come, I ask him to make it clear by his statements on the Bill that he intends his officials to take a very flexible nad wide-ranging view of the many marginal cases which will come to him.

I should like to refer to one case which, as the Bill is now drafted, would clearly fail but which it is clearly desirable should succeed. I take the example of a newspaper published in my constituency—the Croydon Advertiser—one of the best provincial newspapers published anywhere in the country, by any standard. This newspaper has been published in Croydon for generations. It is in the process of providing itself with a single large building which will contain all the editorial offices, all the printing works, and all the ancillary office space for reporters and everything else that goes with it.

To do this it is necessary for the newspaper to exceed, by 1,000 ft. or so, the limit of 2,500 ft.—as it now stands, but which, I believe, the right hon. Gentleman has in mind to increase to 3,000 ft. at a later stage. This is a very marginal case. It cannot be said of the people concerned that they are a "bunch of hard-faced speculators" who have descended on the borough and who wish to put up a lot of speculative office building. It is not like that at all. It is a prosperous enterprise. It has grown. It is bringing its staff into one building from various places dotted around. It has always been associated with this part of the country.

It is unthinkable that because a newspaper wants a few hundred or a thousand or so more square feet than the Bill, even as subsequently, I hope, amended, permits, it may be in danger of having the project turned down. I cannot believe that the right hon. Gentleman means that kind of process to go on. But his officials will be guided not by various hints and suggestions which he throws out, but by what is actually written into the Bill. Therefore, can he reassure us that in this kind of case—it is not the only one; there will be plenty more—he will have regard to other considerations other than purely distribution of population? If he would say that again, he would give much-needed reassurance to many of us, not only on this side of the House but possibly on the benches behind him, and I hope that we can prevail on him to do that.