HC Deb 19 July 1909 vol 8 cc12-3
Mr. GOULDING

asked whether the Government will take steps to give the same publicity to the findings of the Select Committee of this House on Town Holdings with regard to the separate valuation of ground and buildings as has just been given to the findings of that Committee with regard to a division of rates?

Mr. HOBHOUSE

My right hon. Friend has already announced that he will be glad to cause a Supplementary Volume to be published, containing any extracts which hon. Members may think necessary to complete the information in regard to taxation of land values recently laid before the House. Perhaps hon. Members will be good enough to furnish him with lists of the extracts, etc., which they think should be included in such a volume. As regards the case mentioned by the hon. Member, my right hon. Friend hardly thought it necessary to cause the findings of the Select Committee on Town Holdings with regard to the separate valuation of land and buildings to be published in extenso in the Blue Book, because a full summary of the Committee's findings is included at page 251 in Extract A from the Local Taxation Commission's Report. The hon. Member will find that this extract from the Royal Commission's Report not only covers all the points raised in the Report to which he refers, but also contains much additional material on the subject.

Mr. GOULDING

Will the right hon. Gentleman explain the reason for the publication of the findings of the Committee with regard to a division of rates, which is perfectly irrelevant to the matter, while that which is pertinent to it is excluded?

Mr. HOBHOUSE

I cannot see that the principle in the one case and the other is different.

Mr. GOULDING

Is the right hon. Gentleman aware of the findings in the Report?

Mr. HOBHOUSE

I have seen them.

Mr. GOULDING

They certainly are not relevant.

Mr. REMNANT

asked the Chancellor of the Exchequer whether he will consent to the publication of the reasons of the late Marquess of Salisbury, the late Viscount Goschen, and Viscount Cross for dissenting from the recommendations of the Royal Commission on the Housing of the Working Classes with regard to the rating of vacant land, in the same form in which the opinions of minorities on the Royal Commission on Local Taxation have just been published?

Mr. HOBHOUSE

I must refer the hon. Member to the reply which I have just given to the hon. Member for Worcester, in which I repeated the pledge given to the hon. Member himself by my right hon. Friend. The hon. Member is, of course, aware that in connection with the quotation from the Housing Commission's Report in the Land Taxation Blue Book, it is made quite clear that Lord Salisbury, Lord Goschen, and Lord Cross dissented from the recommendations in question.

Mr. REMNANT

May I ask the right hon. Gentleman how we are to approach the Chancellor of the Exchequer in reference to those matters which we want published?

Mr. HOBHOUSE

If the hon. Gentleman will send to the Chancellor of the Exchequer the extracts he wishes to be published the matter will be considered, and I am sure they will be published.