Mr Reginald Freeson: Does the hon. Gentleman recall that that part, like many other parts, of what became the Housing and Building Control Act 1984 was drafted by the previous Government, under whom I was Minister for Housing and Construction?
Mr Reginald Freeson: Reverting to the first supplementary question, may I ask whether the Secretary of State intends or expects to bring forward legislation on this major reform, for which we have waited 10 years, during this Parliament?
Mr Reginald Freeson: asked the Secretary of State for the Environment what representations he has received from local authorities concerning the level of capital applications made for 1986–87.
Mr Reginald Freeson: Does the Minister recall that during the past six years there has been a reduction of gross capital expenditure—which includes capital receipts—from just over £5,000 million to a current figure of about £2,500 million a year, a reduction of 50 per cent. in gross capital expenditure available? Is he further aware that in the past two years alone there has been a reduction of £1,000...
Mr Reginald Freeson: It gives me pleasure to follow the hon. Member for Clwyd, South-West (Mr. Harvey). What the hon. Gentleman and other Members have said requires some response. I, like others, have raised some of the issues over previous months and years but we have been—I say this bluntly—fobbed off by replies, not necessarily from the Minister. The replies of the Chancellor of the Exchequer to my...
Mr Reginald Freeson: Whenever it is suggested that an independent inquiry of some kind should be set up—a suggestion that comes from both sides of the House and from outside—why does the Secretary of State keep on repeating, parrot fashion, the phrase, "It is not self-evident that such an inquiry would end the present disruption"? Nobody is suggesting that it would, but just because it is not self-evident...
Mr Reginald Freeson: Those are false figures.
Mr Reginald Freeson: I shall deal first with resources and then with that aspect of matters on which the Minister seemed to pour scorn—the institutional aspect. I shall not bore the House or myself by quoting a whole series of statistics but it has to be said that, despite some of the acrobatics in the Secretary of State's speech, in the past six or seven years there has been a major reduction in resources...
Mr Reginald Freeson: Although it was a brief allusion, I stressed the point about rural deprivation. It has been well established for many years that in some city areas there are problems on the fringes, not necessarily resulting from the transfer of population to council estates. But that does not alter the fact that the main priority areas are the rundown, decaying inner areas. When one talks about urban...
Mr Reginald Freeson: If the Parliamentary Under-Secretary does not agree, he should read the evidence of his own Department to the Select Committee on the Environment prior to the last general election, which made it quite clear that the partnerships had become a shell and were being overtaken by other methods of which we have now lost sight. The partnerships do not exist as co-ordinating machinery. We do not...
Mr Reginald Freeson: That may well be, but I do not want to get involved in discussing the content of what is going on there. I am concentrating on the method of organisation. If we are to learn the lessons of the new towns, the docklands and other development corporations, the expanded towns such as Swindon and a few other authorities, we must regard method, organisation and policy as central. For more than 20...
Mr Reginald Freeson: rose—
Mr Reginald Freeson: While welcoming the Secretary of State's conversion to co-operative Socialism, may I take him back to what he said at the beginning of that passage? He said that the Government had presided over a 9 per cent. increase in real terms in the Housing Corporation's budget for housing associations. If that is the case, will he explain to the House, the country and the housing association movement...
Mr Reginald Freeson: It is a great pleasure to speak after the hon. Member for Surrey. South-West (Mrs. Bottomley), whose speech provided an excellent, comprehensive and thoughtful agenda for the future. I could not disagree with any of the points that she made, although I should like to discuss some of them further—for example, the current Scottish system and the system that the hon. Lady would like for...
Mr Reginald Freeson: I do not wish to backtrack, and I must not allow the hon. Gentleman to require me to do so. I wish to adhere to my remarks about social service departments. It is true that Brent was one of the first authorities to bring social services under one umbrella. It did so as soon as it was created, and even before the Seebohm report. I was the first chairman of the authority and I sought to...
Mr Reginald Freeson: asked the Prime Minister if, in the light of the recently published report "L'affreux Secret" by John Loftus, special investigator for the United States Justice Department, she will cause an investigation to be made into the connection of British Intelligence with the case of the Nazi Klaus Barbie.
Mr Reginald Freeson: Why the secrecy in dealing with the facts of the matter? Is it not the case that Klaus Barbie was recruited by British intelligence as an agent immediately post-war, along with many other ex-SS spies who were recruited by MI6? Is it not the case that there may well be more facts to be elicited, or are we to have a cover-up such as there has been over Dr. Mengele?
Mr Reginald Freeson: Is it the Prime Minister's intention to restore to the inner cities the £2,000 million of resources that have been removed over the past few years?
Mr Reginald Freeson: About 15 years ago, in a report that was submitted by me to the then Minister for Housing and Local Government before the Department of the Environment came into existence, the following words were used: The hearts of our cities are sick. If something is not done soon in Government and local government and in other institutions to cure that sickness the whole of our society will become ill....
Mr Reginald Freeson: Will the Secretary of State accept that while none of us wishes to give any kind of sympathy to a practice in some quarters of police bashing, at the same time just strengthening the police force and altering tactics will not resolve the problems that have to be dealt with? It would be asking the police to do things they cannot possibly do to solve the problems of these areas. The Secretary...