§ Mr. WEDGWOODI beg to move, "That leave be given to introduce a Bill to confer additional powers of rating upon local authorities."
I do not think it is necessary for me to apologise to the House for taking the opportunity, upon a day when we are discussing a lot of small Bills, of introducing a Bill of the importance of the one I have in my hand. It is a short Bill, and seeks to give to local authorities two distinct powers. In the first place, they are to have the power of requiring the officials of Somerset House to supply them with the valuations made under the Budget of 1909–10, and with any subsequent revisions of the valuations that may hereafter be made, either upon the occasion or if revision is made a necessary part of the valuation. The local authorities, whether county councils or borough councils, will have supplied to them what is described in the valuation as the full site value of each hereditament, and, having got the valuation, they will, in effect, add that as a new column to the already existing rate book, so that the local authority will have there the name of the occupier of each hereditament, the position of that hereditament in each particular street, the annual value of that hereditament as at present, the annual value of the land and the building together, and, in the new column, the full site value of the hereditament. The local authority, having that information, is then given power by the second Clause in the Bill to levy rates, not as they must at the present time upon the annual value of the land and building together, but in such proportion as they choose between the annual value of the land and building together and the full site value. The local authority will be free to make such changes as it thinks fit, or no change at all. It can continue to levy the rates on the present annual value of the land and building together, or can transfer the claim for the rates to the fell site value. They can carry out that transference by gradually increasing stages in subsequent years. We merely give them the opportunity of levying such of their rates as they think fit upon the new assessment. This is not an opportunity for local authorities to go into extravagant schemes and raise more money. We merely provide them with an opportunity of levying their rates 803 upon the new basis should they desire to do so, and levying such proportion as they desire to charge.
The object of this Bill is to exempt improvements from rating, and to get the local authorities, either at one step or gradually, to carry out this change, which we believe nearly all the Members of the Liberal and Labour parties desire—a change, moreover, which, although not approved by the right hon. Gentleman the Member for the City of London (Mr. Balfour), already has the approval of many hon. Members on the other side of the House. It is common ground between us that the present system of rating improvements penalises improvements, hinders trade and checks opportunities for employment. It is with the object of doing what we can to free the hands of local authorities, so that they can gradually and progressively cease to levy rates upon improvements, that we desire this Bill should pass into law. There has recently been published an admirable book upon this question by Mr. Harold Storey. I think that book has been sent to all Liberal and Labour Members. I hope they will read that book. If they do, it will show them far more clearly than I can in the ten minutes at my disposal the arguments in favour of this change in the basis of rating. The Committee over which the Lord Advocate presided some four years ago recommended this change, but since that time nothing has been done legislatively to effect this change. We have had, thanks to the Chancellor of the Exchequer, a valuation made of the land of this country, and in that full site value we have the basis upon which this change can be built up. A time of flourishing trade with our industries and businesses, a time when employment, is easily to be obtained, that is the time we should pay most attention to arranging conditions, so that when slack times come again there will be opportunities for employment, and trade will not fall off as it would do normally. If you allow local authorities to exempt improvements from rates, you will do the very best stroke of work towards securing permanence of work. I passed through Macclesfield the other day, and at the station I saw a large advertisement saying that the town offered to allow all manufacturers who owned a large factory in Macclesfield to be rate free for a period of years. They might put up their factory and they would not be rated for it for a period of 804 years. If you go to Northampton, you will see a similar notice. The local municipality offers special attractions to people who put up new factories in that town. It has always seemed to me that these exemptions for new industries were rather unfair to the old industries, and that though there are countless arguments in favour of exempting new factories from the burden of the rates, those arguments are just as sound as applied to old, existing factories as to new factories.
With this Bill passed into law, a local authority will be able to exempt all buildings, all factories, and all improvements from local rates, and in that way they will do something to encourage the opening up of new industries and opportunities of fresh employment for the people living in the neighbourhood. On the other hand, it must be admitted that the rates which are remitted from the buildings and improvements will have to be made up elsewhere. The local authorities will invite to the ranks of the ratepayers certain parties who are at present not contributing to the rates. The owners of empties will be invited to contribute to the rates for the first time. The owners of undeveloped building land, whether they are holding the land up for a higher price or in order to preserve the view from their front windows, will be invited to join the ranks of the ratepayers for the first time. The owners of undeveloped minerals will likewise join the rank of the ratepayers. These people will make up for the remission of the rates upon buildings, factories, and improvements. I want the House to understand clearly that this is not a case of putting any additional burden upon property owners as a whole. The property owners in any district will pay exactly the same after this change is carried out as they pay at present. Those people who are making the best use of their land will find themselves paying less, and those who are not putting their land to the best use, or whose land is lying idle or underutilised, and thereby creating unemployment, by being invited to contribute more handsomely to the expenses of the district will be not only making up for the overburdened ratepayer of the present time part of that burden which is unjustly laid upon his shoulders, but will also have a very strong inducement either to part with their land or to put it to better use and offer opportunities for the creation of more wealth in this country and at the same time to give people who want work a chance of work.
§ Sir G. YOUNGERI rise to oppose the Bill, not because I think it is very necessary to do so at this stage of the Session, but because it is impossible to allow a proposal of this kind to pass without making it perfectly clear that we are not, on this side at all events, of the same mind with those on the other side, who believe in this particular proposal. So far as I am personally concerned, it would suit me admirably if you could carry this scheme, because I am rated very much more largely on buildings than I should be on land, but it is because I know that although there are anomalies at present the anomalies would be infinitely greater and infinitely more harsh under the proposal of the hon. Gentleman than under the existing system People would be most unfairly penalised. The whole scheme is chimerical and absurd, and I do not believe you could ever find any Government in this country who would go so far as the hon. Gentleman is proposing to go in this Bill. I should also like to say that there is a novel proposal in it which I do not think we have heard of before. The proposal now is to place local rating upon the full site value as brought out in
§ the Budget valuation. Does the hon. Gentleman suggest that any valuation of the Budget is a valuation in the ordinary sense of the word? Does he suggest that the full site value brought out in the Budget is a valuation at all? It is only a Budget abstract. You may just as well have a rate on the full composite value of buildings and houses as a rate on the full site value brought out by the Budget. One is just as fair as the other. The Lord Advocate proposed to transfer this rate on to the bare site value, but since the hon. Member has found out that bare site value is very often a minus valuation altogether, he has given up that proposal, and he seeks to shelter in this chimerical system and to make it attractive by charging on what he knows must necessarily be a positive value and not a negative quantity. I think I have said enough to entitle me to strongly oppose the Bill, as I certainly do.
§ Question put, "That leave be given to bring in a Bill to confer additional powers to entitle me to strongly oppose the Bill,
§ The House divided: Ayes, 203; Noes, 95.
807| Division No. 98.] | AYES. | [4.0 p.m. |
| Abraham, William (Dublin, Harbour) | Delany, William | Jones, Rt. Hon. Sir D. Brynmor (Swansea) |
| Acland, Francis Dyke | Denman, Hon. Richard Douglas | Jones, Edgar (Merthyr Tydvil) |
| Addison, Dr. Christopher | Devlin, Joseph | Jones, H. Haydn (Merioneth) |
| Alden, Percy | Dickinson, W. H. | Jones, J. Towyn (Carmarthen, East) |
| Allen, Arthur A. (Dumbartonshire) | Donelan, Captain A. | Jones, Leif Stratten (Notts, Rushcliffe) |
| Allen, Rt. Hon. Charles P. (Stroud) | Doris, William | Jones, William (Carnarvonshire) |
| Arnold, Sydney | Duffy, William J. | Jewett, F. W. |
| Baker, H. T. (Accrington) | Edwards, John Hugh (Glamorgan, Mid) | Joyce, Michael |
| Balfour, Sir Robert (Lanark) | Esmonde, Dr. John (Tipperary, N) | Keating, Matthew |
| Baring, Sir Godfrey (Barnstaple) | Esmonde, Sir Thomas (Wexford, N) | Kelly, Edward |
| Barlow, Sir John Emmott (Somerset) | Esslemont, George Birnie | Kennedy, Vincent Paul |
| Barton, William | Fenwick, Rt. Hon. Charles | King, J. |
| Beale, Sir William Phipson | Ferens, Rt. Hon. Thomas Robinson | Lambert, Richard (Wilts, Cricklade) |
| Benn, W. W. (T. Hamlets, St. George) | Field, William | Law, Hugh A. (Donegal, W.) |
| Bentham, G. J. | Flavin, Michael Joseph | Leach, Charles |
| Boland, John Pius | France, Gerald Ashburner | Lewis, John Herbert |
| Booth, Frederick Handel | George, Rt. Hon. D. Lloyd | Lough, Rt. Hon. Thomas |
| Boyle, Daniel (Mayo, North) | Gill, A. H. | Low, Sir Frederick (Norwich) |
| Brady, Patrick Joseph | Ginnell, Laurence | Lundon, Thomas |
| Brunner, John F. L. | Gladstone, W. G. C. | Lynch, A. A. |
| Burke, E. Haviland- | Glanville, H. J. | Macdonald, J R. (Leicester) |
| Burns, Rt. Hon. John | Goddard, Sir Daniel Ford | Macdonald, J. M. (Falkirk Burghs) |
| Burt, Rt. Hon. Thomas | Goldstone, Frank | McGhee, Richard |
| Byles, Sir William Pollard | Greig, Colonel J. W. | Macnamara, Rt. Hon. Dr. T. J. |
| Carr-Gomm, H. W. | Guest, Major Hon. C. H. C. (Pembroke) | Macpherson, James Ian |
| Cawley, Harold T. (Lancs., Heywood) | Guest, Hon. Frederick E. (Dorset, E.) | MacVeagh, Jeremiah |
| Chancellor, Henry George | Gulland, John William | M'Callum, Sir John M. |
| Chapple, Dr. William Allen | Gwynn, Stephen Lucius (Galway) | M'Kean, John |
| Clancy, John Joseph | Hackett, John | M'Laren, Hon. F.W.S. (Lincs., Spalding) |
| Clough, William | Hall, Frederick (Normanton) | Manfield, Harry |
| Clynes, John R. | Harmsworth, Cecil (Luton, Beds) | Mason, David M. (Coventry) |
| Collins, G. P. (Greenock) | Harmsworth, R. L. (Caithness-shire) | Meagher, Michael |
| Condon, Thomas Joseph | Harvey, A. G. C. (Rochdale) | Meehan, Francis E. (Leitrim, N.) |
| Cornwall, Sir Edwin A. | Hayden, John Patrick | Menzies, Sir Walter |
| Cotton, William Francis | Hazleton, Richard | Millar, James Duncan |
| Craig, Herbert J. (Tynemooth) | Helme, Sir Norval Watson | Molloy, Michael |
| Crawshay-Williams, Eliot | Higham, John Sharp | Montagu, Hon. E. S. |
| Crooks, William | Hogge, James Myles | Mooney, John J. |
| Crumley, Patrick | Holmes, Daniel Turner | Morgan, George Hay |
| Cullinan, John | Holt, Richard Darning | Morrell, Philip |
| Dalziel, Rt. Hon. Sir J. H. (Kirkcaldy) | Hughes, Spencer Leigh | Morton, Alpheus Cleophas |
| Davies, Timothy (Lincs., Louth) | Isaacs, Rt. Hon. Sir Ruins | Muldoon, John |
| Munro, Robert | Pringle, William M. R. | Spicer, Rt. Mon. Sir Albert |
| Murphy, Martin J. | Raffan, Peter Wilson | Sutherland, John E. |
| Needham, Christopher T. | Rea, Walter Russell (Scarborough) | Taylor, John W. (Durham) |
| Neilson, Francis | Redmond, John E. (Waterford) | Taylor, Theodore C. (Radcliffe) |
| Nolan, Joseph | Redmond, William (Clare, E.) | Thorne, William (West Ham) |
| Norton, Captain Cecil W. | Redmond, William Archer (Tyrone, E.) | Toulmin, Sir George |
| Nuttall, Harry | Rendall, Athelstan | Trevelyan, Charles Philips |
| O'Brien, Patrick (Kilkenny) | Richardson, Thomas (Whitehaven) | Ure, Rt. Hon. Alexander |
| O'Connor, John (Kildare, N.) | Roberts, Charles H. (Lincoln) | Verney, Sir Harry |
| O'Connor, T. P. (Liverpool) | Roberts, George H. (Norwich) | Wadsworth, J. |
| O'Doherty, Philip | Robertson, J. M. (Tyneside) | Walton, Sir Joseph |
| O'Dowd, John | Robinson, Sidney | Wardle, George J. |
| O'Kelly, Edward P. (Wicklow, W.) | Roch, Walter F. (Pembroke) | Wason, Rt. Hon. E. (Clackmannan) |
| O'Malley, William | Roche, Augustine (Louth) | Watt, Henry Anderson |
| O'Shaughnessy, P. J. | Roe, Sir Thomas | Webb, H. |
| O'Shee, James John | Rowlands, James | White, J. Dundas (Glasgow, Tradeston) |
| O'Sullivan, Timothy | Rowntree, Arnold | White, Patrick (Meath, North) |
| Palmer, Godfrey Mark | Russell, Rt. Hon. Thomas W. | Whyte, A. F. (Perth) |
| Parker, James (Halifax) | Samuel, Rt. Hon. H. L. (Cleveland) | Williams, J. (Glamorgan) |
| Pease, Rt. Hon. Joseph A. (Rotherham) | Samuel, J. (Stockton-on-Tees) | Williams, Penry (Middlesbrough) |
| Philipps, Colonel Ivor (Southampton) | Seely, Rt. Hon. Colonel J. E. B. | Wilson, W. T (Westhoughton) |
| Phillips, John (Longford, S.) | Sheehan, Daniel Daniel | Wing, Thomas |
| Pirie, Duncan Vernon | Sheehy, David | Wood, Rt. Hon. T. McKinnon (Glasgow) |
| Pollard, Sir George H. | Sherwell, Arthur James | Yoxall, Sir James Henry |
| Ponsonby, Arthur A. W. H. | Simon, Rt. Hon. Sir John Allsebrook | |
| Price, C. E. (Edinburgh, Central) | Smyth, Thomas F. (Leitrim) | TELLERS FOR THE AYES—Mr. |
| Priestley, Sir W. E. B. (Bradford, E.) | Soames, Arthur Wellesley | Wedgwood and Mr. M'Curdy. |
| NOES. | ||
| Agnew, Sir George William | Greene, Walter Raymond | Pretyman, Ernest George |
| Astor, Waldorf | Guinness, Hon. Rupert (Essex, S.E.) | Price, Sir Robert J. (Norfolk, E.) |
| Baird, John Lawrence | Hall Frederick (Dulwich) | Pryce-Jones, Colonel E. |
| Barlow, Montague (Salford, South) | Hamersley, Alfred St. George | Randles, Sir John S. |
| Barnston, Harry | Harris, Henry Percy | Rea, Rt. Hon. Russell (South Shields) |
| Bathurst, Charles (Wilts, Wilton) | Henry, Sir Charles | Rees, Sir J. D. |
| Benn, Arthur Shirley (Plymouth) | Herbert, Hon. A. (Somerset, S.) | Roberts, S. (Sheffield, Ecclesall) |
| Bennett-Goldney, Francis | Hewins, William Albert Samuel | Samuel, Sir Harry (Norwood) |
| Blair, Reginald | Hibbert, Sir Henry F. | Sandys, G. J. |
| Boscawen, Sir Arthur S. T. Griffith- | Hope, Harry (Bute) | Scott, Leslie (Liverpool, Exchange) |
| Bridgeman, W. Clive | Hope, James Fitzalan (Sheffield) | Spear, Sir John Ward |
| Burn, Colonel C. R. | Hope, Major J. A. (Midlothian) | Stanley, Hon. G. F. (Preston) |
| Butcher, John George | Ingleby, Holcombe | Starkey, John Ralph |
| Cecil, Lord Hugh (Oxford University) | Kinloch-Cooke, Sir Clement | Steel-Maitland, A. D. |
| Cecil, Lord R. (Herts, Hitchin) | Larmor, Sir J. | Stewart, Gershom |
| Chaplin, Rt. Hon. Henry | Law, Rt. Hon. A. Bonar (Bootle) | Talbot, Lord Edmund |
| Cooper, Richard Ashmole | Lawson, Hon. H. (T. H'mts., Mile End) | Terrell, George (Wilts, N.W.) |
| Craig, Captain James (Down, E.) | Lewisham, Viscount | Terrell, Henry (Gloucester) |
| Craik, Sir Henry | Lloyd, George Butler (Shrewsbury) | Thynne, Lord A. |
| Dalrymple, Viscount | Locker-Lampson, G. (Salisbury) | Tryon, Captain George Clement |
| Dickson, Rt. Hon. C. Scott | Lockwood, Rt. Hon. Lt.-Colonel A. R. | Wason, John Cathcart (Orkney) |
| Doughty, Sir George | Lyttelton, Rt. Hon. A. (S. Geo., Han. S.) | Weigall, Captain A. G. |
| Eyres-Monsell, Bolton M. | Magnus, Sir Philip | Weston, Colonel J. W. |
| Faber, Captain W. V. (Hants, W.) | Martin, Joseph | Wheler, Granville C. H. |
| Falle, Bertram Godfray | Morrison-Bell, Capt. E. F. (Ashburton) | White, Sir Luke (Yorks, E.R.) |
| Fisher, Rt. Hon. W. Hayes | O'Neill, Hon. A. E. B. (Antrim, Mid) | Williams, Colonel R. (Dorset, W.) |
| Fitzroy, Hon. Edward A. | Orde-Powlett, Hon. W. G. A. | Wood, Hon. E. F. L. (Yorks, Ripon) |
| Fletcher, John Samuel (Hampstead) | Paget, Almeric Hugh | Worthington-Evans, L. |
| Gardner, Ernest | Parker, Sir Gilbert (Gravesend) | Yate, Colonel C. E. |
| Gilmour, Captain John | Pearce, William (Limehouse) | |
| Goldsmith, Frank | Pease, Herbert Pike (Darlington) | TELLERS FOR THE NOES—Sir |
| Gordon, Hon. John Edward (Brighton) | Peto, Basil Edward | G. Younger and Sir F. Banbury. |
| Goulding, Edward Alfred | Pointer, Joseph |
§ Bill ordered to be brought in by Mr. Wedgwood, Sir William Byles, Sir Henry Dalziel, Sir Alfred Mond, Mr. Morrell, Sir Albert Spicer, Mr. Parker, and Mr. Watt. Presented accordingly, and read the first time; to be read a second time upon Tuesday, 1st July, and to be printed.