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 Sir Peter Emery Sir Peter Emery , Reading 12:00, 14 April 1965

We have had this a number of times and we are likely to have it again, on both Government Amendments and on other Amendments when we reach them. I am sure that you would not want me to delay the House, Mr. Speaker, in discussing the possibilities of lobbies and halls. As the Bill stands, I do not believe that a general application to build a new hall would require an O.D.P.

Whatever Ministers may say, people outside this House would believe that the central Government will get what they want. It is nonsense to suggest that if the central Government need new offices, they will be controlled by the Bill. However much Ministers say that they intend to ensure that their Department is associated with Government policy and that they will have to apply to the President of the Board of Trade, I and the public would believe that Government Departments will get this permission. That being the case, it is nonsense to argue that local authorities must be put in the same position. The whole of that argument falls.

I therefore return to the point with which I started in trying to urge the Government to reconsider particularly Amendment No. 15 in another place, because it is designed for the efficiency of local authorities. They are spending the ratepayers' money. The concept that every local authority will be spendthrift and will build new offices for the sake of building them and that there will be competition in this—although that is not exactly what was said, it was inferred by the Joint Parliamentary Secretary—is nonsense. Local authorities are responsible authorities. I can speak with experience of my own in Reading. I know the immense amount of thought—and indeed political debate—it gave to the rebuilding of the civic centre and to whether it could be afforded or not. It was judged a major requirement for efficiently coping with the local authority's administration.

I hope that the Government may be able to answer my question about the hall, and that even now they may reconsider the matter of the local authorities. The Joint Parliamentary Secretary should be arguing this case himself. He is the person responsible for this. I could well understand a Board of Trade Minister putting up the argument we have heard from the Government, but I really do not believe we are doing local government any good by the sort of argument put by the Joint Parliamentary Secretary. I hope that the Government will reconsider and will have the Bill amended in another place.