§ 27. Mr. Pagetasked the Minister of Housing and Local Government and Minister for Welsh Affairs why he 23 refused to grant a dispensation to nine council house tenants, who are councillors of Northampton, allowing them to vote on a proposal to sell by auction 33 acres of land which it had previously been intended to use for municipal housing.
§ Mr. BrookeIt is most undesirable that councillors should vote on matters in which they have a pecuniary interest. In exceptional cases it must be allowed where otherwise difficulties would be caused in the transaction of the council's business; but there were no exceptional circumstances in this instance.
§ Mr. PagetWill the right hon. Gentleman tell me the logic of preventing council tenants from voting on whether additional land shall be used for building further houses when one would have thought that, as the people who already had houses, they were the one group of people in the borough who did not have an interest, whereas, on the other hand, he allows a builder, a solicitor, a director of a building company and a house agent, who all seem to have a very much more obvious interest, to vote on this matter?
§ Mr. BrookeI have followed meticulously the policy which was laid down in Circular 30, issued in 1956. In this case I am not quite sure whether the hon. and learned Gentleman appreciates that I was not asked my opinion whether a disability attached to these people. I was asked whether, assuming that they were disabled, I would give them a dispensation to vote. In the circumstances, and in accordance with the terms of that circular, it did not seem to me right or necessary to do so.