Clause 7.—(OTHER RELIEFS FROM RATES.) (Hansard, 6 July 1955)

§ Mr. Deedes
I beg to move, in page 11, line 37, at the end to insert: or (b) of any structure belonging to a local health authority, or to a voluntary organisation formed for any of the purposes mentioned in subsection (1) of section twenty-eight of the National Health Service Act, 1946 (which relates to the prevention of illness, and to the care and after-care of persons suffering from illness or mental defectiveness), and supplied for the use of any person in pursuance of arrangements made under that subsection; or (c) of any structure belonging to a local authority, within the meaning of section twenty-nine of the National Assistance Act, 1948 (which relates to welfare arrangements for blind, deaf, dumb and other handicapped persons), or to such a voluntary organisation as is mentioned in section thirty of that Act, and supplied for the use of any person in pursuance of arrangements made under the said section twenty-nine; or (d) of any structure which is of a kind similar to structures such as are referred to in paragraph (a), paragraph (b) or paragraph (c) of this subsection, but does not fall within that paragraph by reason that it is owned or has been supplied otherwise than as mentioned in that paragraph. This Amendment meets the undertaking given on the Committee stage of the Bill, and extends the exemption of garages for invalid chairs to other structures provided for the use of invalids or disabled persons. It also meets the point raised by the hon. and learned Member for Kettering (Mr. Mitchison) about structures similar to those provided by Government Departments, but which are provided by some other person or agency, and the further point which the hon. and learned Gentleman made that, logically, those similar structures should also be exempted.
The best known example of structures falling within paragraph (b) of the Amendment is, of course, the hut in the invalid's garden for the use and treatment of the man suffering from tuberculosis. Paragraph (c) will cover such things as the shed erected in the gardens of a blind man to serve as a workshop where he can earn his living, and so on. I hope that the Amendment meets the wishes very generally expressed in Committee, 1222 and that the House will feel able to accept it.

§ Mr. Tom Brown (Ince)
I wish to express my appreciation to the Minister for having gone as far as he has done to meet us on this point, although I am very much afraid that he has not gone quite far enough. The weight of his promise is contained in paragraph (d) of the Amendment, but the hon. Gentleman has failed to understand the point which I tried to make regarding the housing of mechanically-propelled chairs for injured miners.

§ Mr. Lindgren
I think that is included.

§ Mr. Brown
We shall see, but I want to extract the information from the Minister.
The miners in Lancashire have just built three bungalows for cases of this kind. The garage or storage place is not outside, but actually within the building itself. It is a self-contained place. All the latest additions have been placed inside, and they are all under one roof.
The question I wish to ask the Parliamentary Secretary is whether that portion of the bungalow which houses the mechanically-propelled chair will be exempted from rates or whether it will be included in the rating of the bungalow. That is a point which arises as a result of the improvements that have been made in seeking accommodation for cases of this kind. It is a new venture which is working very well. I should be glad to know whether, because the accommodation for the mechanically-propelled chair is within the building itself, it will be exempted from the payment of rates.

§ Mr. K. Thompson
Before we part with the Amendment, which I have no doubt the House will approve, I want to say something that may appear to introduce a discordant note. I said it in Committee during the discussion of a similar proposal, and I feel that I must say it again. All the evidence goes to show that the moment that the House begins to tackle a difficulty of this sort in this kind of way, it finds itself in ever greater difficulty.
During the Committee stage, I said that I would go as far as any hon. Member in providing relief and assistance to all who need it, whatever the cause of 1223 their difficulty or whatever the form of their need. I think that the whole House will echo that sentiment. But there are right and proper ways in which the House can use its resources to relieve need, ways which are already well practised and well established and which are working efficiently and to the satisfaction of those who are in need. To use a Measure of this kind in order to permit special rate remissions for a limited purpose and for a limited section of the community seems to me to be entirely wrong.
Let us suppose, for example, that those who are in what I might call general financial need, for want of a better term, go to the Assistance Board and ask for assistance in paying their rent, which includes an element of rates. If the practice contained in the Amendment is to be extended, as now appears to be the intention of this honourable House, then the right thing to do would be to write into this Clause some quite simple provision which would allow the local authority to remit the rates on the houses of those receiving public assistance. That would be precisely the same machinery to serve precisely similar conditions.
I realise that it is not the slightest use my opposing the Amendment, but I want the House to be aware of what it is doing to the local authorities in this country. It is quite wrong to compel a local authority to sacrifice its rate income for the relief of this kind of need when there are many other ways in which it can properly be relieved.

§ Mr. Lindgren
I have twice previously taken up the point which has been made by the hon. Member for Liverpool, Walton (Mr. K. Thompson). I then expressed the view that as the Ministry of Pensions was providing the chairs and had already made a contribution towards the tax and the cost of petrol, the garaging of the vehicle was just another case for similar treatment. I also said that I should have much preferred a cash payment to meet the cost of garaging. However, the Minister did not accept the suggestion.
In answer to Amendments in my name, and which were moved by my hon. and learned Friend the Member for Kettering (Mr. Mitchison), the Minister then agreed to meet the general principle which we argued ought to be included in this Bill. 1224 I think that the Minister has very fully fulfilled the undertaking which he then gave, and I thank him very much for doing so, even though I should have preferred the other principle. I think that it would be ungracious not to express our thanks to the Minister for what he has done.

§ Mr. Deedes
The hon. Member for Ince (Mr. T. Brown) is quite right. The point which he raised is not covered by the Amendment. The difficulty involved is that of including any structure of this kind which is part of the main structure. The difficulty which arose in the case of the Amendment proposed by the hon. Member for Wellingborough (Mr. Lindgren) during the Committee stage was that it could include houses with specially wide doorways or anything of that kind, to allow for the movement of invalid chairs. As I made plain to the Committee on that occasion, there was an overwhelming objection to accepting an Amendment in terms as wide as that, for the obvious reason that the loss of rateable income would be very considerable. The Amendment covers the whole range of structures which most Members of the Committee thought should be included, but it does not cover the point which the hon. Member for Ince raised.