Mr Harry Cowans: Further to the point of order, Mr. Deputy Speaker. The Minister for Local Government said that he had been advised. The House is entitled to know when he was advised. One alteration to one set of figures has a knock-on effect on all the other figures. I do not know how anybody can debate the report when every figure in it will be altered by that knock-on effect as a result of this efficient...
Mr Harry Cowans: On a point of order, Mr. Deputy Speaker. This is an important matter. May we have an assurance from the Minister that all of the other figures are correct and will not be amended in any way if we continue to debate the report? So far, we have had no assurances. We know that one figure is wrong. It was discovered, but the House was not informed. Are any more wrong? Have the figures been...
Mr Harry Cowans: Further to that point of order, Mr. Deputy Speaker. For the protection of hon. Members, would you accept a motion, That further consideration of the report be adjourned until such a time as the Secretary of State can substantiate the correctness of the other figures?
Mr Harry Cowans: To hear the hon. Gentleman talk, one would think that central Government imposed nothing on local government. In fact, 148 Acts have been passed which impose financial spending on local authorities. The hon. Gentleman seems to be making a good case for his being neither in Parliament nor in local government if everybody knows better than he does.
Mr Harry Cowans: The hon. Member for Stockport (Mr. Favell) should accept that, by the inner city partnership, even the Government recognise the problems of cities such as Manchester and Newcastle. One problem is the tightly drawn boundaries, which condense those problems into smaller areas. In view of the lecture that he has received from my hon. Friend, the hon. Member for Stockport should accept that the...
Mr Harry Cowans: Will the Prime Minister take time out to visit Trinity House and take the Secretary of State for Transport with her—even if he has to be taken or t a lead—and discuss the efforts being made by Trinity House to have lighthouse tender ships built in this country? Is she aware that she is being asked merely to match the offer and to repay the efforts of the shipbuilders on Tyneside who...
Mr Harry Cowans: I have listened to my hon. Friend, and surely he agrees that the converse is also true. Local authorities are unable to complete the clearing of an area to build better houses because of Government cuts in housing. People are left in limbo because they cannot pay the compensation necessary to clear the area, and instead of making improvements the area is left like a battlefield.
Mr Harry Cowans: They would have been rate capped.
Mr Harry Cowans: Will the Minister reflect on the fact that water is far too important a commodity, to use his own words, to leave to the "whims" of the free market? If he will not reflect on that, I am bound to say that the Labour party in power will return it to public control. If the private sector is so good, will the Minister kindly explain why the private firm that supplies Eastbourne charges more...
Mr Harry Cowans: Eastbourne.
Mr Harry Cowans: The hon. Gentleman's argument would make sense if the Government intended to pass back to the old county boroughs or districts the functions they lost, but they are not doing that. They are setting up unelected, undemocratic quangos with no responsibility or accountability to the people of Leeds or anywhere else.
Mr Harry Cowans: My hon. Friend the Member for Newham, North-West (Mr. Banks) hit the nail on the head. It is patently obvious that the Minister of State either has not read the Bill or has not read the Lords amendment. She said that there was duplication, but the contrary is the case. I have heard her speak on several occasions, and there are only two conclusions that the House can come to tonight —...
Mr Harry Cowans: I think that the hon. Lady has to come into the real world. She will realise that after I have finished. There was a Bill on local government in 1972. Being adaptable, local government conformed to the Bill. One of its requirements was that local government should integrate. Was it surprising that it did just that? That was the wish of the Government of the day. The unreasonable argument,...
Mr Harry Cowans: I am grateful to my hon. Friend, and I shall return to that relevant point. I was talking about specialised teams. They are already starting to break up and, not unnaturally, to look elsewhere. The Minister is on record as saying that the Government recognise the specialised teams and would like to keep them, but they leave it to God and good neighbour and do nothing themselves to ensure...
Mr Harry Cowans: I apologise for intervening in my hon. Friend's speech, but had the Secretary of State not been windy I would have said the same to him. Does my hon. Friend realise that those amendments were made at 11.30 pm last Wednesday in the other place, yet here we are on Monday, less than 48 sitting hours later, talking about those very amendments? Not only is the Bill being subjected to the...
Mr Harry Cowans: The Minister should be deeply ashamed to stand at the Dispatch Box and announce to the House and, more importantly, to the country, that 1·1 million houses are not in a tolerable condition, especially at a time when he is cutting not only improvement grants but the financial wherewithal to solve the problem. Is it not patently obvious to him, even at this stage, that his policies have...
Mr Harry Cowans: I have been following closely the hon. Gentleman's speech, and up to now he has sounded more like the sheriff of Nottingham than Robin Hood. There is now a glorious opportunity for him to be Robin Hood. Would he at my invitation like to place on record a categorical assurance that the scheme that he has praised in Nottingham will be the same scheme after the Bill is enacted, because new...
Mr Harry Cowans: Will the hon. Gentleman take this opportunity to tell his constituents that the scheme will still exist after the enactment of the Bill?
Mr Harry Cowans: My hon. Friend should remind the Secretary of State that we are questioning his legislation. She should ask him why his Government saw fit to undertake to underwrite concessionary fares in the London Regional Transport Bill. Perhaps she will also ask him why, in the grant-related expenditure, 50 per cent. is the level of concessionary fares. Is that the Government's standard?
Mr Harry Cowans: Not representing any constituents in north-east London, I am not qualified to speak for them, but I am qualified to speak for the people in the non h-east. Perhaps the Minister would get it right. Will he accept that, after considerable pressure on him by my hon. Friends to make a decision, the decision that he has made is wrong and the period is not long enough? It would make more sense, if...
