§ Mr. REMNANTasked the Chancellor of the Exchequer whether he will explain why the Blue Book published last week on Taxes on Land contains two Memoranda in favour of the separate taxation of site values contributed to the Royal Commission on Local Taxation, and does not contain any of the Memoranda adverse to such taxation contributed to that Commission by the late Lord Farrer, Sir Robert Giffen, and other experts?
§ Mr. HOBHOUSEThe two Memoranda referred to—namely, those by Mr. Edgar Harper and Lord Justice Fletcher Moulton —were included in the Blue Book because they are discussed at considerable length in the separate Report of the Local Taxation Commission on Urban Rating, which appears in the Blue Book immediately preceding the two Memoranda in question, and which contains a large number of references to passages in them. In the Memorandum by Sir Robert Giffen only four lines are devoted to the subject of rating ground values, Which he dismisses as impracticable. Lord Farrer, on the other hand, suggests as an alternative to the separate rating of ground values the imposition of municipal Death Duties, and the whole of his observations on this subject would, of course, have had to be given 16 in order to make clear his attitude on the question. I may add that the Memoranda by Sir Robert Giffen and Lord Farrer appear in a special volume of 250 pages, together with the views of 14 other authorities, all of whom might well have been quoted had space permitted. Of these 14 only three expressed an adverse opinion on the rating of land values.
§ Mr. REMNANTMay I ask the right hon. Gentleman whether he will allow to be published extracts from the memoranda of Lord Farrer and Sir Robert Giffen which derogate from the proposals of the Government?
§ Mr. HOBHOUSEI have already pointed out that the whole of Sir Robert Giffen's memorandum consists of only four lines. I shall be glad to consider the hon. Gentleman's request.