HC Deb 03 March 1959 vol 601 cc190-2
17. Mr. W. Wells

asked the Minister of Housing and Local Government and Minister for Welsh Affairs why he has refused to grant a dispensation to members of the Walsall Borough Council who are tenants of council houses to vote on the proposed new rent scheme.

Mr. H. Brooke

Members of a local authority are debarred by law from speaking or voting on matters in which they have a pecuniary interest, unless I give a dispensation under my statutory powers. The power relevant to this case requires me to be satisfied that dispensation is in the interests of the inhabitants of the area.

I am prepared, in the exercise of this power, to consider sympathetically any application for a dispensation allowing councillors to vote on a particular issue when their inability to do so might lead to the adoption of a policy contrary to that of the party group which had been given a majority by the local electorate.

At the last election in Walsall, an equal number of councillors was returned in each of the two groups, and, in these circumstances, I was not satisfied that the councillors who applied for a dispensation had discharged the onus of showing that the interests of the inhabitants required the setting aside of the normal rule that members with a pecuniary interest should not vote.

Mr. Wells

Does not the right hon. Gentleman recognise that by his decision in this case he has altered the composition of the voting power of the council as established, and is it not most undesirable that his Ministry should act as a means of assessing the value of individual votes on the council?

Mr. Brooke

No, Sir. This jurisdiction that is given to me is a very difficult one. In this case, as the result of the last election had been to produce a dead-heat of councillors—a situation with which I am not unfamiliar—it did not seem to me that it would be right to give a dispensation. I can say to the House that in discharging my responsibilities I get criticised, now by Conservative councillors, now by Socialist councillors. That being so, I think that it is fair evidence that I am trying to act impartially.

Sir H. d'Avigdor-Goldsmid

Is my right hon. Friend aware that, in Walsall, his decision has given very great satisfaction to fair-minded people of all political parties who value political consistency and despite the sort of chicanery that has given rise to the present position?

Mr. Brooke

I am grateful to my hon. Friend. I just try to do my best.

Mr. Mitchison

One cannot deny that there was an element of political consistency in the Minister's decision, but did not it go against his own Departmental circular? Is not this a case in which the inability of even a small proportion of councillors to vote might possibly lead to the adoption of a policy to which the majority of a council were opposed? Is not that the very case to which his predecessor undertook to give sympathetic consideration? Is not the result of the electoral position in Walsall that he is, in fact, by refusing this dispensation, going against the views of the majority of the council and of the electors, and ought not this Section to be amended, and the inability of councillor tenants to vote withdrawn?

Mr. Brooke

I think that we must look, not at he number of aldermen or anything like that, but at the result of the last election in terms, not of votes, but of councillors. The underlying suggestion in the circular issued by my predecessor is that the will of the local electorate should prevail. It is in the light of that that I seek to exercise my jurisdiction, but I am having discussions with the local authority associations to see whether there is a prevailing view that I should submit to Parliament that Section 76 should be amended. So long as that Section stands as it does on the Statute Book, I submit to the House that I am acting impartially in my application of it.

Mr. Wells

In view of the unsatisfactory nature of the reply, I beg to give notice that I shall seek to raise the matter on the Adjournment of the House.