§ 29. Mr. ORMSBY-GOREasked the Prime Minister whether, in view of the aggravation of the present anomalies in the incidence of local rates caused by the general though widely-varying increases in local rates, he will appoint forthwith a Royal Commission to examine and make recommendations regarding the relation of Imperial to local taxation and expenditure, the basis of assessment, incidence, and method of collection of local taxation, the redress as far as possible of inequalities of burden between areas of low and high rateable value, and other matters cognate thereto.
§ The PRIME MINISTERThe Government are fully alive to the importance of the matter to which my hon. Friend refers. In view of the enquiries by the Royal Commission and Departmental Committee on Local Taxation, the latter of whom reported in 1914, I do not think there would be any advantage in the appointment of a further Royal Commission as suggested.