HC Deb 25 February 1964 vol 690 cc241-4

3.32 p.m.

Sir Hamilton Kerr (Cambridge)

I beg to move, That leave be given to bring in a Bill to include the Colleges of Oxford and Cambridge in the First Schedule to the Rating and Valuation Act 1961. The purpose of my Bill is short and simple. It is to include the colleges of Oxford and Cambridge in Schedule 1 of the Rating and Valuation Act, 1961. By rights, my hon. Friend the Member for Oxford (Mr. Woodhouse) should have introduced this Motion. Equipped with the ingenuity obtained as a leader of the Greek guerrillas in the last war, and fortified with the reputation of a double first, he would have deployed a most formidable argument. But, alas, he is exposed to a torture more exquisitely refined than any torture invented by a Chinese emperor for his victims, namely, the torture of silence on the Front Bench. Therefore, it falls to me, who obtained only a third and scarcely deserved that, to try to do the best that I can.

I have only one qualification. Having associations with Oxford and Cambridge, I may perhaps classify myself as the original Oxbridge model, somewhat antique, battered and distinctly rattling, but still holding the road. The cities of Oxford and Cambridge find no counterpart in these islands. During the course of centuries the love and piety of successive generations, princes, priests and benefactors have endowed the colleges which are the glory of those cities and which cover a large area of them and, therefore, at the same time, are affected by their rateable value.

Quite rightly, these colleges are classified as charities exempt from full rates; but this means, on the other hand, that the ratepayers of Oxford and Cambridge have to pay more on that account. I would, therefore, like to submit, first, that the colleges should be added to the Schedule of the 1961 Act. This would mean, in fact, that, unfortunately, they would have to pay more rates, but I propose to compensate them from equivalent grants from the University Grants Committee.

There are formidable precedents for this argument. In the Second Reading debate, 1960, during the speech of my hon. Friend the Member for Oxford, which my right hon. Friend the present Minister of Housing and Local Government described as formidable, he pointed out that many of the colleges already received aid directly from the universities through the University Grants Committee, and even more that certain colleges both in Oxford and Cambridge have received in the past direct grants from the University Grants Committee.

Furthermore, during the course of the Second Reading the then Minister said that those institutions, charitable and otherwise, which would be added to the First Schedule would be compensated by an equal amount from the Universtiy Grants Committee. I bring forward these arguments of my hon. Friend —I trust serious arguments—for I know that if I am to win his ear, trained and fortified in the intellectual fortress of All Souls, I have to produce arguments of logic and precedent. Perhaps they may help to answer the type of conversation which I can picture occurring in Whitehall. The Minister will say, "Such a move would form a precedent. You will be hounded and harried by endless local authorities and, in fact, it will be untidy administration."

Alas, the phrase "tidy administration" cannot very often cover human nature, with its hopes and fears, likes and dislikes, and, certainly, has not done so with the cities of Oxford and Cambridge on this occasion. But having appealed, I hope with logic and reason, to my right hon. Friend I shall, quite openly and without shame, bring another arrow out of my quiver. I shall appeal to his heart.

We have said that in terms of administration the cities of Oxford and Cambridge have no counterpart in these islands. That is more than certainly true in the realm of education and, above all, their beauty which, in fact, forms one of the great assets not only of these islands, but of the whole English-speaking world. When we think of Oxford we think surely of Tom Quod, whose space and proportions recall the imperial magnificence of Wolsey; we think of the garden of New College with its lawns and elms surrounded by the old city walls unchanged since the sentries of Charles I patrolled upon them; and, above all, we think of that wonderful view from the Radcliff Camera over the towers, spires, gables and pinnacles of the city, recalling those fortresses illustrated in a medieval Book of Hours.

In Cambridge, we think of the great court of Trinity recalling Tennyson and Newton, of the arcadian beauty of the Backs, recalling a picture by Claude Lorraine or Richard Wilson; above all, I think of King's College whose windows, to me, transmit the light of Paradise, whose soaring lines make me feel that I have listened to the trumpet blast of the archangel.

These images have evoked loyalties all over the world, often in the campus of the American university, or the lecture rooms of one of the new universities in Africa and Asia. They bring, apart from these great spiritual appeals, material value as well. They bring tourists to the cities of Oxford and Cambridge and the presence of a large number of undergraduates brings wealth to the ratepayers.

Now, fortunately, the days of town and gown fights are quite past. We no longer hear the streets echoing with shouts and clattering feet, or the cracking of skulls; but, alas, these ancient and most undesirable animosities could still be kept alive by a certain sense of injustice. The ratepayers of Oxford and Cambridge feel that they are paying extra rates on account of the presence of the colleges, and, even more—this is important—that they are being singled out as a unique case which has no counterpart in the rest of the country.

Therefore, I suggest that the colleges of Oxford and Cambridge be brought into the First Schedule to the Rating and Valuation Act, 1961, and that they be compensated to an equal degree by the University Grants Committee.

Question put and agreed to.

Bill ordered to be brought in by Sir H. Kerr, Sir H. Lucas-Tooth, Mr. Temple, and Mr. Robert Cooke.