STEVENAGE DEVELOPMENT AUTHORITY BILL (By Order)

Part of the debate – in the House of Commons at 7:38 pm on 26 March 1980.

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Photo of Mr Bowen Wells Mr Bowen Wells , Hertford and Stevenage 7:38, 26 March 1980

I am not familiar with the Swindon case. Therefore I cannot answer that question.

I want next to consider clause 10, dealing with the object of the authority. It states that: The objects of the Authority are to manage, turn to account, carry on, develop and extend the undertaking of the Authority as a public service and for that purpose the Authority shall have power to acquire, hold, manage and dispose of land and other property, to carry out building and other operations, to carry on any business or undertaking necessary or expedient for the purposes thereof or any purposes incidental thereto. There we see the attempt to take powers to trade and to enter into any business, and to contract. This is the type of thing to which no one on the Government side could possibly contemplate agreeing. At a meeting earlier today I had the assurance of the leader of the majority party on the borough council that it was not its intention that that part of the Letchworth Act should have been repeated in the Stevenage Development Authority Bill, and that it would have liked to remove it. I hope that we can believe that assurance. I was very glad to hear it, because it would certainly make the Bill more acceptable to Conservative Members.