Part of Ballot for Notices of Motions – in the House of Commons at 12:00 am on 14 April 1965.
There is a special consideration in regard to the new towns around London. Virtually all of them are in the metropolitan area. The consideration in the past has been that the new town is developed to take overspill from London and provide it with work. Part of that work is office work. McAlpine was one of the first firms in the country to move out to a new town, to Hemel Hempstead, and provide office space and work there and thus remove the necessity of having to commute to London. This has been a very valuable development in relieving London of employment and relieving the railway lines to London of congestion.
The new towns have been self-supporting in trying to produce a balance of employment and housing. But the provisions of the Bill seem a little dangerous, and I should like some reassurance in relation to this subsection about what is to happen in the future. If there is to be virtually no office building over the next seven years in the new towns, the position will be that because of the very large increase in population—there is a tendency for young couples to go to new towns and produce families, and we are now reaching the second generation—there will be a great demand by young and intelligent people for office jobs.
If such jobs are not available in the new towns, what are the young people to do? Is it the Government's intention that they should return to commuting and fill office vacancies in London? I do not follow whether that is the intention. It would have the advantage of relieving pressure on housing in London if the workers came in from outside, but I do not think that that is the intention of the Bill. I should like an explanation—