§ 21. Mr. Costainasked the Minister of Housing and Local Government and Minister for Welsh Affairs, in view of the fact that the revised valuation of bungalow properties in the Folkestone district has risen disproportionately compared with that of adajacent houses, if he will instruct his proposed Committee of inquiry to take this special feature into account.
§ The Joint Parliamentary Secretary to the Ministry of Housing and Local Government (Mr. F. V. Corfield)The Committee's task will be to measure the impact of rates on different sections of the community, and they will certainly consider the effect on occupiers of small houses of high assessments.
1467 Questions whether properties have been correctly assessed will be outside the scope of the inquiry; and the proper course for anyone who thinks that his new assessment is higher than the value of the property warrants is to appeal.
§ Mr. CostainDoes my hon. Friend appreciate that these bungalows are occupied by people who have come from industrial areas, releasing houses, and have moved into bungalows in this area in the belief that they would be able to five there within their means, and that cases have been brought to my notice in which assessments have risen fourfold? Why cannot the Committee take these factors into account?
§ Mr. CorfieldI think I have made it clear that that is what the Committee will take into account.