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 James MacColl Mr James MacColl , Widnes 12:00, 14 April 1965

I think that the hon. Gentleman cannot have been attending in Committee with his usual assiduity, because this was discussed in a great deal of detail. Hon. Members may remember the argument about the telephone exchange which arose in one of the sittings of the Committee, when we went into the matter in a fair amount of detail. I think that the process will work in the way it usually works when the Crown is accepting restrictions of this sort. It will be done by inter-Departmental consultation. Before a public central government building is built, there will be consultation with my right hon. Friend to see whether this is the kind of building which would have been provided if it had not been for a public authority.

So I start by saying that I think the case for having both central government and local government under the Bill is a good one. When one comes to compare public building, on the one hand, and private building on the other, I think that the case for bringing public building under regulation seems overwhelming. I cannot imagine anything more likely to create ill-feeling and distress, than the idea of the hon. Gentleman the Member for Folkestone and Hythe (Mr. Costain)—a great and active protagonist of private enterprise; a vigorous contributor to the national income—being told that he must be under control, and subject to all this red tape, when round the corner, after being turned off from having the office block which he most urgently needs for his work, he sees a palatial administrative hall being built for the local council.

I am afraid that the idea that, on the whole, the citizen welcomes local government building, is not true; nor is the idea that the citizen says, "Of course, we recognise the supreme need of local government and we are glad to see that, although we cannot have a new building, local government can." That is not the way I have ever seen local communities operating. On the whole, the one thing that most irritates them is when they see rather expensive and over-elaborate buildings going up, when they are subject to restriction.

We have taken the line all along that this Bill is essential to deal with a crisis. Coming in as it is after having been too long delayed in being introduced, it is bound to be rough justice, it is bound to create a certain amount of hardship, it is bound to create a certain amount of distress. To add to that distress a feeling of resentment and injustice, because public building was cut out of the Bill and private building was to be restricted, is something which I think it would be quite impossible to justify.