§ MR. JESSE COLLINGSI beg to ask the hon. Member for South Somerset, as 686 representing the President of the Board of Agriculture, whether, with regard to land purchased by county councils and let in small holdings under the Small Holdings Act of last year, the county councils are required to charge such rent as will include, not only interest on the purchase money, but also a yearly sum as a sinking fund sufficient to recoup the whole cost of the land, seeing that the county councils would thus become owners of property the whole cost of which has been paid by the small tenants in hard cash.
§ SIR EDWARD STRACHEYThe intention of the Small Holdings and Allotments Act of last session is that the charges to which the right hon. Gentleman refers should be included in the rent, but so far as the Board are concerned they will offer no objection to the exclusion of these charms in the calculation of rents where a county council is itself willing to defray them. The matter was fully discussed, as the right hon. Gentleman is aware, when the Bill was under consideration last year.
§ MR. JESSE COLLINGSThen I take it the Answer to my Question is in the affirmative, qualified by the statement that the county council can if it likes defray those charges?
§ SIR EDWARD STRACHEYI have already told the right hon. Gentleman that the county council if they think fit can include them in the rent.