HC Deb 28 October 1943 vol 393 cc376-7
62. Sir H. Williams

asked the Minister of Health whether he has considered the copy sent to him of a paper presented to the Royal Statistical Society by Mr. K. S. Lomax on the relationship between expenditure per head and size of population of county boroughs in England and Wales; and, having regard to the fact that apparently towns with a population of 100,000 to 190,000 get better value for money than either larger or smaller towns, whether his Department is considering the implications of this conclusion?

Miss Horsbrugh

Yes, Sir. I would, however, remind my hon. Friend that the Royal Commission on the Distribution of Industrial Population came to the conclusion that it is difficult to substantiate the claim or to show that, from the point of view of cost of municipal services, there is an optimum size for towns.

Sir H. Williams

As this document was written since the Royal Commission reported, and since they did not have this evidence in front of them, is it not the case that we cannot attach a great deal of importance to their conclusions based on a lack of evidence?