§ 18. Mr. Oswald Lewisasked the Minister of Fuel and Power if he will reconsider his decision to refuse any allowance for petrol to Mr. W. H. Hammond, of Fordham, to run a motor-car for hire although he has been granted a licence by the Essex County Council, as the inability to obtain the petrol is depriving him of a means of livelihood after three years' active service in the Royal Navy, from which he has been discharged for medical reasons.
Major Lloyd GeorgeFrom the national standpoint there are objections to the creation of additional hire-car allowances, and I am advised that Fordham is adequately served by the hire cars available in the neighbourhood. The fact that an applicant has been granted a hackney licence is no evidence of public need for a hire-car, since such a licence is obtainable 518 on payment of the appropriate fee. I am ready to consider sympathetically any case in which the grant of a petrol allowance would afford the best chance of satisfactory resettlement for a disabled man, and I have arranged with my right hon. Friend the Minister of Labour and National Service a procedure for consultation in such cases. In the present instance, I understand that suitable work in his own trade of electrical wireman is available for Mr. Hammond within a mile and a half of his home and in these circumstances I do not at present feel able to reverse the decisions on the application for a hire-car allowance.