Mr Charles Fletcher-Cooke: Would it not nevertheless speed up the work of this Commission considerably, since the Commission itself and not the secretariat is at present the bottleneck?
Mr Charles Fletcher-Cooke: He has done something else as well; he has paid the development charge, which he did not know about when he purchased the land.
Mr Charles Fletcher-Cooke: Sir Malcolm Trustram Eve held public meetings all over England at the time, explaining these matters, and particularly tried to induce people to sell land at the existing use value. I have been to several of these public meetings. It is no use the hon. Gentleman saying that Sir Malcolm Trustram Eve shrouded himself in some holy mystery.
Mr Charles Fletcher-Cooke: Who does the hon. Member suppose was to pay for the £300 million scheme?
Mr Charles Fletcher-Cooke: asked the President of the Board of Trade if he is aware that, by designating the proposed new Development Area in North-East Lancashire on such a narrow basis, he will be injuring the future development of excluded boroughs, such as Darwen; and if he will widen the basis in order that such boroughs may attract industries now artificially diverted to the Development Area.
Mr Charles Fletcher-Cooke: If the weaving area, which the hon. Lady the Member for Blackburn, East (Mrs. Castle) rightly said is a national unit, is to be cut into two in this way, does it not inevitably follow that, at least to some extent, the excluded area will be prejudiced in favour of the included area?
Mr Charles Fletcher-Cooke: I have in my hand one of the gloomiest documents that ever came out of a Government Department. It is the third Girdwood Report on the cost of house building. It covers the period from 1949 to 1951, and I need only read three sentences out of it to give the House some idea of the seriousness of the position, at least as late as 1951. On page iv of the Introduction, the Committee report: There...
Mr Charles Fletcher-Cooke: asked the Parliamentary Secretary to the Ministry of Works, as representing the Lord President of the Council, to what extent research is being made into the use and development of silicates, oxides and nitrides from domestic sources; and what encouragement is being given to this research.
Mr Charles Fletcher-Cooke: Can the Parliamentary Secretary say to what extent we may hope in the near future to make ourselves less dependent on the import of foreign metal by the use of these domestic substances?
Mr Charles Fletcher-Cooke: I understood from the opening remarks of the hon. Member that he was of the impression that no amount of legislation or administration would alter this inevitable tendency in private industry to become monopolistic; that there was nothing we can do about it—
Mr Charles Fletcher-Cooke: I beg the hon. Member's pardon. I say that proper legislation can create conditions of competition in the private sector.
Mr Charles Fletcher-Cooke: I beg to second the Motion.
Mr Charles Fletcher-Cooke: I beg to second the Motion.
Mr Charles Fletcher-Cooke: I beg to second the Motion.
Mr Charles Fletcher-Cooke: I beg to second the Motion.
Mr Charles Fletcher-Cooke: Is it not a fact that this Act deals only with manufacture and not with the distribution services?
Mr Charles Fletcher-Cooke: I think the hon. Gentleman will find there is provision for taking the proportions locally as well as nationally, and that the point is covered in the Act as it stands.
Mr Charles Fletcher-Cooke: I am sure that we have all listened with the greatest interest to the hon. Member for Hillsborough (Mr. G. Darling). With much that he said I entirely agree. I would just advance as a matter for consideration the suggestion that we should not go too fast. More is on trial in the work of this Commission than merely monopolies and restrictive practices. In its structure the Commission is open...
Mr Charles Fletcher-Cooke: That is how I should like to see it work out, but the word used by the hon. and learned Gentleman's right hon. Friend was that many of these industries had already been "convicted" of malpractices by the Monopolies Commission.
Mr Charles Fletcher-Cooke: No doubt, but the attitude of the right hon. Gentleman was also clear, and the attitude in this matter is very important because that is what gets publicity rather than the Act. That being so, it is difficult to support the suggestion that the Commission should operate in panels or divisions. If there is to be a gradual deduction of the law from individual cases, it is essential that the...