HC Deb 01 April 1947 vol 435 cc1843-5
77. Mr. Butcher

asked the President of the Board of Trade whether he will make a statement as to the manner in which persons who have had furniture or clothing ruined as a result of the floods may speedily obtain dockets and clothing coupons which will enable them to replace their loss.

83. Mr. Turner-Samuels

asked the President of the Board of Trade if he will make an allocation to local authorities of coupons for clothing and vouchers for bedding and furniture for distribution to victims of the floods, to replace their goods destroyed or lost in the floods.

Mr. Belcher

People who have lost furniture, furnishings, or clothing in the floods are entitled to coupons, dockets and furniture permits on a prescribed scale. Forms of application for dockets and permits can be obtained from local information centres and citizens' advice bureaux, as well as from fuel offices. Applications for coupons are dealt with by the offices of collectors of Customs, and for dockets and permits by the Board of Trade Office at Southport. These applications are dealt with immediately, and my right hon. and learned Friend sees no occasion for altering the existing arrangements.

Mr. Butcher

Will the hon. Gentleman indicate the desirability of local authorities opening offices in which applications could be completed and filed, so that they were dealt with in bulk, and individual applications to various offices thereby avoided?

Mr. Belcher

If I thought that there would be great advantage in doing so, I would suggest to my right hon. and learned Friend that we should do it, but my information is that these applications are dealt with by special staff, and that within two or three days permits are given.

Lieut.-Colonel Clifton-Brown

Will the hon. Gentleman see that there are goods in the shops to meet these dockets?

Mr. Belcher

I have no reason to believe that there are not.

Viscount Hinchingbrooke

Does the prescribed scale mean that people will get back all they have lost, or will receive only a proportion of what they have lost?

Mr. Belcher

That depends on how much they have lost. If they have lost a great deal I do not think that they would get as much as they lost, but if they have lost a small amount I think that they will get full recovery.

Major Legge-Bourke

Will the hon. Gentleman reconsider this point about applications? Surely there should be some way of cutting down the number of forms to be filled in. I suggest that he should use the parish councils.

Mr. Belcher

In the case of coupons, they are dealt with locally, by the collector of Customs and Excise. It is essential to have forms, otherwise there would be a possibility of fraud.