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 Graham Page Mr Graham Page , Crosby 12:00, 14 April 1965

The applicant, if he had any sense, would see that point and would not wish to force the Board of Trade to reject his application because he was asking the Board to give a decision within two months, but the applicant should have the right to hasten a Government Department to give a decision, to state its reasons for the decision and not to delay it indefinitely. If this is a reasonable procedure, surely there is no objection to putting it into the Bill.

Our purpose throughout the discussions on this type of Amendment has been to reduce the obstructions and the irritants of Government Department procedure to an applicant who has put forward a commercial proposition and has made an application for development. We have tried to overcome the obstructions, obstacles and irritants except where they are absolutely necessary in order to carry out the Government's policy.

As the Minister of State said, it is recognised in town planning law that the authority to whom one has to apply must give the decision within a certain time, but in that case the sanction in town planning law is that if the decision is not given by the local authority in a specific time an appeal lies to the Minister. The Minister of State cannot complain if we have not drawn the Amendment in that way in this case. He has deprived us of our right of appeal in this case. There is no appeal to the Minister, and although we have tried to introduce this into the Bill, it has been denied to us. Therefore, the only sanction in this case is to say that if the application has not been granted within two months, then it is deemed to have been granted.

We have been told that we must leave the applicant and the Board of Trade to carry on their informal discussions—I gather, to carry them on indefinitely, not at the applicant's will but at the will of the officials at the Board of Trade—and that the applicant can never call a halt and say "I really must have the decision now." I am not impressed by that argument. Here we are dealing with commercial necessities. The applicant who comes forward for an office development permit is not coming forward with an application which can wait month after month. He is making application because he wants to develop in a certain area and he wants to develop at once. Therefore, he wants a decision on his application.

Although there may be some advantage in having flexible control, there is no advantage in having indefinite control that can carry on for a length of time. Of course, a Government Department will not want to be pushed to make a decision. Of course, it will not want to say why it has come to a certain decision, but the Minister should really protect the public against this Departmental attitude. He is there as a communication with the public, in order to protect them against this bureaucratic attitude which a Government Department naturally adopts. We have laid down in these three Amendments a very simple and reasonable procedure, and I should have hoped that the Government could have accepted it as such.