Orders of the Day — Budget Resolutions and Economic Situation

Part of the debate – in the House of Commons at 12:00 am on 16 April 1969.

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Photo of Mr John Boyd-Carpenter Mr John Boyd-Carpenter , Kingston upon Thames 12:00, 16 April 1969

The hon. Gentleman can shout what he likes. If he manages to catch Mr. Speaker's eye he can say that it is not so. I think that it is so. What is far more important than whether the Labour-controlled L.C.C. did it, as I believe it did, is for the hon. Gentleman to direct his mind to it in the context of what the Chancellor is trying to do when the Minister of Housing is telling a local authority to borrow instead of meeting out of revenue in respect of certain housing expenditure. This is at the very moment when the Chancellor is priding himself on having reduced the borrowing commitment of the nation to a minus quantity on the ground that it is necessary in our present economic situation.

It seems clear that this petty interference in the affairs of the greatest local authority in the land, in carrying out policies which it was elected to carry out, is not only a montrous interference in the affairs of local government but goes right against the whole of the Chancellor's policy. It is an indication of the disorganisation of this Government that here we have the Minister of Housing and Local Government working in a sense contrary to the Chancellor.