§ Q6. Mr. Boyd-Carpenterasked the Prime Minister whether the speech of the Lord President of the Council at Haringey on 13th March about the treatment of council tenants represents the policy of Her Majesty's Government.
§ Mr. George BrownI have been asked to reply.
If the right hon. Gentleman is referring to the speech my right hon. Friend actually made, rather than the one he was misreported as having made, the answer is "Yes, Sir".
§ Mr. Boyd-CarpenterDoes that Answer cover the correction hastily issued after the Foreign Secretary's right hon. Friend's speech, in which he urged that council tenants should be given the opportunity to buy their houses on mortgage? If that is so, will the Government now withdraw the stop on the issue of local authority mortgages which now affects certain boroughs, and so enable people to buy houses on mortgage, even if, unhappily, it has to be at 7 per cent. rather than at 3 per cent.?
§ Mr. BrownNo correction was hastily issued. I have the advantage of having letters from people who were actually in 1330 the audience at the meeting, expressing their disgust at the reports made of what my right hon. Friend said. As to the second part of the right hon. Gentleman's supplementary question, there is no difficulty at the moment—quite the contrary, in fact—in people getting mortgages to buy houses.
§ Mr. MaxwellWould not my right hon. Friend agree that it would have been better for the Government to have taken steps not to require local councils to increase their rents, having regard to the freeze on wages; and that the rent increases for council house tenants are unfair?
§ Mr. BrownThat seems to me to be a totally different question from that which I am answering at the moment.
§ Mr. MaudlingAs the Labour Party's statement used the words
…as a result of the Government's 100 per cent. mortgage policy…can the right hon. Gentleman say when that policy will be brought into effect?