HC Deb 05 March 1929 vol 226 cc185-6
27. Mr. T. KENNEDY

asked the Secretary of State for Scotland if he is aware that the town council of Burntisland some time ago acquired three unoccupied cottages situated near the burgh reservoir, which have since been restored and made habitable at the expense of the council in order to be used as stores and as a dwelling-house for a burgh employé that the buildings were practically valueless when acquired; that the town council entered into an arrangement under which their payment for the houses took the form of the erection of a house at Balmule Farm, Fifeshire, for the original owner of the cottages, the approximate value of which is £500, and in respect of which the owner received a subsidy through the Dunfermline district committee; and if he will inquire whether the whole facts relating to this arrangement were within the knowledge of the district committee when the subsidy was paid, and cause inquiry to be made into all the circumstances of this transaction?

Sir J. GILMOUR

I am informed that an arrangement on the lines set out in the question was entered into by the town council of Burntisland, but as my approval is not required by statute, I am unable to say whether all the facts are as stated. As regards the last part of the question I understand that the general terms of the arrangement were known to the district committee when the subsidy was paid, but that the conditions of their scheme of assistance to private enterprise having been complied with the district committee considered subsidy was properly payable. In these circumstances, I am not satisfied that there is any ground for inquiry on my part.

Mr. KENNEDY

Is the right hon. Gentleman satisfied that the whole of the circumstances connected with this transaction—by which the council gets three valueless buildings for the value of a new house—have been disclosed; is he satisfied that the subsidy was properly paid in view of those circumstances; and will he inquire more closely into the matter?

Sir J. GILMOUR

Of course, I cannot judge whether the local authority made a good bargain or a bad bargain. That was for them to decide. As regards the payment of subsidy, all the circumstances, as far as I know, were before the local authority upon whose shoulders rests the responsibility.