§ Mr. LESLIE SCOTTasked the Secretary to the Treasury whether he is aware that a practice has recently been adopted by the surveyor of taxes in Liverpool of demanding, in regard to ordinary business premises, the payment of inhabited House Duty upon the full annual value of the whole building in every case where the office-keeper has residing with him any son or daughter who has any outside employment; whether he is aware that the result has been not to raise any money for the revenue but only to deprive a large number of boys and girls of the shelter of their home and compel them to sleep out, at the risk of their health and morals; whether the Liverpool practice is general; and what administrative or legislative measure it is proposed to take with a view to remedying such a state of affairs?
§ Mr. ILLINGWORTHThe matter is one primarily for the decision of the District Commissioners of Taxes. But I may inform the hon. Member that the practice of charging Inhabited House Duty, in cases such as he refers to, is based on a decision of the Courts.
§ Mr. LESLIE SCOTTIn view of the gravity of the question raised from the social point of view, will the Treasury reconsider the desirability of giving instructions, so that the matter may not he left solely to the discretion or indiscretion of local authorities?
§ Mr. ILLINGWORTHI will certainly convey those representations.