Mr Leslie Seymour: asked the Chancellor of the Exchequer what proportion of Schedule A was paid last year in respect of owner-occupied houses and flats.
Mr Leslie Seymour: Will my hon. Friend take into account the fact that it would give great encouragement to home ownership if the anomalies of Schedule A tax were abolished?
Mr Leslie Seymour: asked the Chancellor of the Exchequer what would be the saving in administrative expenses if the Schedule A tax was abandoned.
Mr Leslie Seymour: Can my hon. Friend inform me what would be the total loss to the Exchequer if Schedule A were abolished on owner-occupiers?
Mr Leslie Seymour: I come from the Spark-brook division of Birmingham and I followed, as its Member of Parliament, an hon. Member who was a great friend of mine. We lived adjacent to each other, we worked in the same area and we spent many years together on the Birmingham City Council. He was a grand little man who regarded it as his first duty to help other people. I very much miss him and regret the passing...
Mr Leslie Seymour: Does the hon. Member agree that the system of permits now proposed will remedy the situation existing in Birmingham, where hundreds of immigrants are now walking round the city trying to find jobs? I have many of them coming to my factory every day.
Mr Leslie Seymour: I did not say that we were going to send them back. Indeed, there is no intention under the Bill to send them back. It is quite true I said that, because there was no accommodation for them in Birmingham, they were having to live in terrible housing conditions.
Mr Leslie Seymour: I do.
Mr Leslie Seymour: I am a member of the Birmingham Regional Hospital Board. I have also been chairman of the management committee of a hospital concerned with mental deficiency. Therefore, I have some knowledge of the running of a hospital and the connection between members of the committee and the medical staff. It can be truly said that in all committees from time to time there must be differences of...
Mr Leslie Seymour: As a general rule, one does not tackle a fire until it bursts into flame. If it is smouldering, it starts at a very small point and gradually spreads. It is not the right of a regional board to interfere in the details of a hospital management committee in differences of opinion. It is the hope of the board that at least the members will have sufficient sense to settle it themselves. The...
Mr Leslie Seymour: That may be so, but the chairman of the committee should at least act in the orthodox manner, and the proper manner is to consult the medical superintendent of the hospital where these improvements, desirable as they may be, were to take place.
Mr Leslie Seymour: These improvements were made at Rubery and I was one, as chairman of the finance committee, who voted against the increase for modernisation and improvements for which Mr. Rhydderch was asking, because he was having more than his share of the "mental millions".
Mr Leslie Seymour: That may be the opinion of the hon. Member for Birmingham, Small Heath (Mr. Denis Howell). Here are some of the other things which he tried to do and which are really the responsibility of other members of the department He gave instructions to the heads of departments to write direct to him, as chairman, on staff matters such as promotions and appointments of staff. Was that his duty or...
Mr Leslie Seymour: The previous medical superintendent of that hospital resigned before it was necessary for him so to do because he could not agree with the chairman.
Mr Leslie Seymour: I stand corrected. It is true that Dr. Mathers was deputy director at Hollymoor before he came to Rubery. With regard to Mr. Rhydderch, as I have said, he was too energetic. He did not permit other people to do their work properly, and as a result he clashed with most people who were employed there. But he is a man of many good points.
Mr Leslie Seymour: I am not being patronising. I am making a statement. He is a man of great energy and determination and spares no personal effort in all that he undertakes. Knowing him and the hard work he has done, I would also pay my tribute to him for the work he did at Rubery. He has never done this work for his own profit but always for the good of the hospital. He has resigned, but I hope that in the...
Mr Leslie Seymour: I have already offered my services as chairman. [HON. MEMBERS: "Oh."] I have been chairman of a mental hospital committee for many more years than Mr. Rhydderch, and I can honestly say that the officers worked in complete harmony with me, to their great credit. If this hospital management committee is disbanded, two consequences will follow. The senior officers will lose their jobs. Why...
Mr Leslie Seymour: Surely it is true that the doctors did present a report. It went to the committee and Mr. Rhydderch would not accept it. He had the representation expunged from the minutes. Had it gone to the committee in the proper manner, it would have been sent on to the regional board.
Mr Leslie Seymour: Let us stick to the facts. I said that other hospitals should be added, and I instanced a hospital which at some future time is to be built in the grounds of Rubery.
Mr Leslie Seymour: asked the Minister of Health if he will exclude from the proposed sale of land at the Women's Hospital, Showell Green Lane, Birmingham, that area cultivated for many years by the Oakwood Road Allotment Society.
