§ 43. Mr. DAYasked the Minister of Transport the number of road schemes in respect of which applications for grants have been made which are at present before his Department; and the aggregate amount which will be involved by these various schemes prepared by highway authorities?
§ The MINISTER of TRANSPORT (Mr.Herbert Morrison)Under the trunk road and five-year programmes, over 300 applications for grant, representing a total expenditure of approximately £25,000,000, are at the present time before my Department. I have indicated approval in principle to the greater part of these, but fuller details and plans are required before they can be definitely approved for grant. I regret that it is not possible, without diverting staff from urgent work, to give corresponding figures for the numerous schemes under preliminary consideration for grant under normal annual programmes.
§ Mr. DAYCan my hon. Friend say whether estimates were provided by all the local authorities at the same time that the schemes were submitted?
§ Mr. MORRISONIf so, they would be in a very cursory form, but they have to put them in later.
§ Colonel ASHLEYSuppose that the Road Fund is unable to furnish these vast sums of money, does the Treasury stand behind it?
§ Mr. MORRISONI have a satisfactory agreement on that point with the Chancellor of the Exchequer.
§ Colonel ASHLEYDo I understand by that that the Treasury does stand behind the Road Fund?
§ Mr. MORRISONIf the contingency mentioned by the right hon. and gallant Gentleman should arise, the Treasury will stand by the Ministry.
§ 44. Mr. DAYasked the Minister of Transport whether he has any statistics and can state the amount that has been spent in road schemes for the 12 months ended to the last convenient date, giving particulars of the approximate amount of direct wages and the amount spent on British tar and/or local stone?
§ Mr. MORRISONA statement regarding the total expenditure on roads and. bridges will be found in Appendix 13 of the annual report on the administration of the Road Fund. The last financial year for which information is available is the year 1927–28. During that year the gross expenditure by local authorities, including expenditure defrayed out of loans but excluding loan charges, was £58,798,707. In addition payments amounting to £597,514 were made during the year from Government Funds in connection with arterial road works carried out directly by my Department. I am not in possession of information which enables me to give the approximate expenditure upon British tar and stone.
§ Mr. DAYIs it not possible to obtain information, as it is generally understood that the greater part of the tar and stone comes from the Continent?
§ Mr. MORRISONI do not think that that is true. The local authorities generally make every effort to use British material, and the Unemployment Grants 2216 Committee require them to do so. I cannot get all this information without taking my staff from urgent work in connection with unemployment schemes.