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

My right hon. Friend the Minister of Housing and Local Government is a humble man—[HON. MEMBERS: "Oh."]—and I am sure that both he and I feel that we have quite enough on our plate in grappling with the housing legacy left by the last Government. We are quite happy to leave this extremely technical problem of the distribution of office building to my right hon. Friend the President of the Board of Trade, who is the person looking at the problem in general. If it is only a question of which Department should do the job, the case is strong for that Department being the Board of Trade.

If we can get this Bill through in reasonable time so that the pipeline can be cleared and we can begin to give office development permissions, the sooner will it be possible to do what we all want—to get adequate housing for the local authorities of the standard they require and which I do not for a moment question they should have. But I say that this moment of crisis is not the time to exclude them from control.