HC Deb 21 April 1936 vol 311 cc55-6

Having said so much about the future, I must now come back to the problem which immediately confronts us. In considering how to overcome the difficulties arising from the emergency of a demand unprecedented in extent except in wartime, I come up at once against an anomaly in our national financial system. Surely when a Chancellor has to wrestle with a task so formidable as that in front of me he ought to be able not only to survey the whole field of expenditure but also all his sources of revenue, so that he can direct them where they are most needed. There is one exception to the general rule which gives him power to do so. The Motor Licence Duties, which now amount to £31,500,000, are out of my control; save for that small share which comes to the Exchequer they pass automatically into the Road Fund. In past years if they have not been sufficient to meet the needs of the Road Fund the Exchequer has had to lend the balance. At other times, when they have been more than sufficient and surpluses have piled up, steps have been taken to sweep them into the Exchequer.

I have no intention of making any alterations in the functions of the Road Fund, nor have I changed my attitude to those road problems which my right hon. Friend the Minister of Transport has been attacking with so much courage and success. Nor do I propose in any way to curtail the five-year road programme to which the Government has set its hand. But I have represented to my right hon. Friend that this system of feeding the Road Fund by the varying produce of duties specifically assigned to it is an irregularity which ought to be corrected and replaced by the more normal method of allowing the House of Commons to assess its needs each year and to satisfy those needs by Votes. I am proposing to make that change by legislation in the Finance Bill, but owing to technical reasons it cannot be made effective until next year; but in view of the alteration in procedure, and as I am assured that the current revenue of the fund is ample for its current needs, I am proposing to abstract for the benefit of the taxpayer the £5,250,000 which at the outset of this financial year stood to the credit of the fund.

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