HC Deb 10 February 1937 vol 320 cc400-1
52. Mr. Hepworth

asked the Minister of Transport the amount of expenditure borne on the Road Fund for schemes for improving roads in the Orkneys, Shetlands, Outer and Inner Hebrides, and the Highlands of Scotland; and whether he can indicate the approximate amount of receipts by way of motor-car taxes from persons owning cars registered in those parts of Great Britain?

Mr. Hore-Belisha

The motor licence duties collected in these seven counties in 1936 amounted to £146,000 net. Grants out of the Road Fund amounting to £200,000 have been made during the current financial year to the county councils in question. In addition, I have undertaken to reconstruct and improve a substantial proportion of the Class I roads in these counties at the sole cost, amounting to several million pounds, of the fund.

Mr. Hepworth

Does not the Minister think that the money could be spent more profitably in some of the congested areas of Lancashire and Yorkshire?

Mr. Hore-Belisha

If I thought so, I should not have answered as I did.