§ 47. Mr. SNOWDENasked the Prime Minister if he will take steps to relieve municipalities from the position in which some of them have been placed by the restriction of borrowing powers in the following circumstances: Some municipalities have the option this year of purchasing the local tramway system, the Corporation of Bristol being a case in point, but, owing to the refusal of the Treasury to grant public loans, it is impossible to exercise this legal option, with the result that the private tramway companies will be reinstated for a long term of years, and the public rights will thus be rendered invalid, and that the loss of the power to exercise the option of purchase will, in the case of Bristol, involve a loss of £20,000 a year for seven years, as well as the advantages of public ownership, and also heavier cost if 666 purchase should be exercised at the expiry of the extended lease; and will he consider the desirability of special legislation entitling the municipalities to exercise the right of purchase now, but to postpone the raising of the loan, say to twelve months after the end of the War?
§ The PRIME MINISTERI understand that an application from the Corporation of Bristol has been received by the Treasury in the course of the last few days relative to the question of the purchase by the Corporation of the local tramway system, and that this application has been referred to the Committee on Fresh Issues of Capital. Pending the receipt of their report, it is premature to consider in this particular case what steps, if any, should be taken in the contingency to which the hon. Member refers. The general question raised is, I think, best dealt with in relation to specific cases as they arise.