HC Deb 08 August 1904 vol 139 cc1341-2
MR. SYDNEY BUXTON (Tower Hamlets, Poplar)

To ask Mr. Chancellor of the Exchequer what is the amount of capital expenditure involved during the current year under the Capital Expenditure (Money) Bill, and what are the items that go to make up this total; what is the total amount of capital already borrowed by means of terminable annuities, under the enabling Acts, during the last ten years, giving the totals of each year.

(Answered by Mr. Austen Chamberlain.) The capital expenditure during the current financial year under the Acts to which the provisions of the Capital Expenditure (Money) Bill apply, is estimated at £9,233,000, namely:—

Under the Naval Works Acts £4,500,000
Under the Military Works Acts 3,500,000
Under the Telegraph Acts 750,000
Under the Uganda Railway Acts 219,000
Under the Land Registry (New Buildings) Act 17,000
Under the Public Buildings (Expenses) Act, 1903 197,000
Under the Public Offices Site (Dublin) Act 50,000
£9,233,000

Of this amount it is estimated that about £6,000,000 will be raised by Exchequer bonds under the provisions of the Capital Expenditure (Money) Bill. The amount of capital borrowed in previous years under these and similar Acts is shown in detail at pages 10–13 of Command Paper No. 2065. The totals for the last ten years are—

1894–5 £760,000
1895–6 1,088,550
1896–7 694,114
1897–8
1898–9 3,932,336
1899–1900 2,985,617
1900–1 4,914,587
1901–2 6,284,100
1902–3 8,140,400
1903–4 5,305,000
£34,104,704

In the same period debt amounting to £4,732,195 has been redeemed by the terminable annuities, so that the net addition to "Other Capital Liabilities" in the ten years was £29,372,509.