LOCAL AND IMPERIAL FINANCE.

HC Deb 04 May 1914 vol 62 cc60-3

There is one undertaking which certainly cannot be postponed without injury to the interests of the nation, and that is the readjustment of the relations of local and Imperial finance. The condition of our local finance has long been a crying evil; an evil which has been admitted by all parties in this House, and which imposes grave injustice upon individuals and inflicts serious injury on the highest interests of the community. There have been most emphatic pledges given by the leaders of both parties to deal with it and deal with it immediately. The pages of that dread Parliamentary recording angel, the OFFICIAL REPORT, are full of promises of the kind. Since these pledges have been given, the evil has been accentuated from year to year. Commissions and Committees have been appointed in order to find a way out. In 1896 our predecessors appointed a very able Commission to inquire into the subject. It took five years to investigate the subject, and reported in 1901. They were unable to deal with the matter during the four and a-half years which followed, in which they were in power, and I am not criticising them for that now, but undoubtedly the Education Act, carried in 1902, aggravated and emphasised the evil very considerably. We also have given very definite pledges. There was a pledge given by the Prime Minister in 1908, which I shall read, because it indicates why it is that we have not up to the present been in a position to deal with this subject. It was on a Motion by an hon. Member of this House, demanding the immediate attention of His Majesty's Government to the relations between local and Imperial burdens. My right hon. Friend said:— I will at once frankly state on behalf of the Government, that I do not intend to offer any opposition to the Motion which has been put on the Paper by my hon. Friend. I may perhaps make some reservation in my own mind, and I may as well make it also public, to the introduction of the word 'immediate.' In every political vocabulary that word is subject to a very wide construction. The hon. Member must be content with the assurance that I will give it as strict a construction as the exigencies of public life allow. Subject to that qualification I see no objection to the Resolution. But the latter part of that quotation is the one to which I particularly want to call attention— I have sketched what, in my view and that of my colleagues, ought to be the governing lines on which the problem is to be met. I am most anxious to have an early opportunity of dealing with it, but I repeat I cannot put the matter in train for legislative solution until, first, having last year swept away the cumbrous system of assigned revenue, we next get a proper system of valuation in working order and so can do even handed justice, not only as between the Imperial Exchequer and the ratepayers of the country, but also as regards the localities. My Noble Friend the Leader of the House of Lords also gave a very definite pledge in 1910. In fact, we have all given most explicit pledges to deal with this matter at the earliest opportunity. The problem is becoming more and more urgent, as those who are acquainted with local government know full well. I am not sure that we always realise the magnitude and the consequences and the pervasive influence of the powers which are entrusted to local authorities in this country, and how inadequate are the means which we have provided to enable them to cope with the gigantic functions which have been entrusted to them. They have the training of the young, which is developing into a guardianship over their health and physical conditions as well as education. They have to look after the destitute and feeble-minded. They have the maintenance of law and order, the prevention and cure of disease, the protection of not merely life and property, but of the health and comfort of the community. They have to look after the dwelling-houses of the people, the water supply and lighting, open spaces, roads and tramways, and we are constantly in this House entrusting new duties to them. There has hardly been a year for the last forty years that successive Parliaments have not imposed new functions of an onerous and costly character upon the local authorities to discharge, and very rarely with any provision for assistance to meet the financial liabilities. And all parties were equally responsible here. We think we have done our duty in this House the moment we pass a beneficent measure and hand over the responsibility of administering it to the local authority. The credit is ours and the burden is theirs, and we take no further thought of the matter; and we are surprised when we discover that many of our precious Statutes are really dead letters.

Sir F. BANBURY

Hear, hear.

Mr. LLOYD GEORGE

I should have thought that the hon. Baronet would be rather pleased at that.

Sir F. BANBURY

I am pleased.

Mr. LLOYD GEORGE

We are all aware of the large number of circulars on this matter which are littering the waste-paper baskets of city and town halls. The point is, that because the burden has been cast on other shoulders and the Imperial Parliament has not made provision to take up any share of it, it is a very serious matter, especially in some localities. In some districts where the rateable value is low and the needs of the district are great, municipal activity is practically at a standstill, and municipal corporations cannot carry the work on any further. That is the complaint which comes from every quarter of this Kingdom. If the Local Government Board or the Board of Education were to press local authorities to do half the things which Parliament has enjoined upon them, there would be wholesale resignations in many districts. There have been threats of them in the course of the present year.