MR. HERBERT ROBERTS (Denbighshire, W.)To ask the hon. Member for 266 East Bristol, as Church Estates Commissioner, whether he is in a position to state the approximate value to the Ecclesiastical Commissioners of the 336 public houses which were on their estates in 1905; the total annual rental of the sixty-four leases or tenancies for public houses which have been renewed or extended by the Commissioners since December 31st, 1899; the annual rental of the two new public houses for which leases have been granted by the Commissioners during that period; and whether he can state the names and localities in which they are situated of the public houses whose licences will expire before Christmas, 1910, and which the Commissioners do not intend to suppress.
(Answered by Mr. Hobhouse.) The Ecclesiastical Commissioners feel that some of the information desired could not be made public without embarrassing them in the management of their estates, and some could not be procured without great labour and expense. I regret, I therefore, that I am unable to supply all the particulars for which the hon. Member asks; but I am able to state that,—(1) the annual rents reserved to the Commissioners on the sixty-four renewed leases of public houses (in which are included hotels as, for instance, the Westminster Palace Hotel) amount to £11,158 19s. 10d, but other properties are in a few cases comprised with the public houses in the same leases; and (2) the rents reserved in the leases of the two new public houses are ground rents only, the buildings being erected by the lessees, and amount to £34 6s. per annum.