GENERAL POWERS OF MANAGEMENT (Hansard, 7 April 1970)

§ Mr. Mackie
I beg to move Amendment No. 29, in page 37, line 42, leave out from 'promotion' to 'and' in line 43 and insert: 'of efficiency in the conduct of smallholdings through co-operative methods, and in particular through co-operative purchase and hiring of requisites for the smallholdings or the cooperative sale, marketing or preparation for marketing of the produce of the smallholdings'. I hope to please the Opposition on this Amendment rather more than I pleased them on Amendment No. 24.
Clause 44 gives smallholdings authorities the powers they need to manage their estates. In particular, it enables them to encourage co-operation on smallholdings estates, to provide requisites and services for tenants and to arrange for the disposal of their produce. These powers for the encouragement of co-operation—[Interruption.]—are widely drawn.

Mr. Deputy Speaker
Order. Perhaps we can have a little more silence from hon. Members.

§ Mr. Mackie
In Committee, hon. Members on both sides urged us to draw authorities' special attention in the Clause to the possibilities of co-operative buying and marketing.
Although for drafting reasons we were unable to accept the Amendment put forward in Committee, I entirely agree with the view expressed by the hon. Member for Westmorland (Mr. Jopling) that it is smallholders and the smaller farmers who have more to gain by group activities of this sort than anyone else in the whole industry,."—[OFFICIAL REPORT, Standing Committee B, 29th January, 1970; c. 570.] 436 The feeling of the Committee was clearly in favour of underlining the importance of this type of co-operation. The Amendment will do so and it will emphasise the Government's positive attitude to co-operation by including in the Clause references to co-operative purchase and marketing as illustrations of the kind of activity authorities may encourage and which we certainly hope that they will encourage.

§ Mr. Temple
This is undoubtedly an improvement. The Parliamentary Secretary sticks to the use of the word "co-operative" and nobody understands how to define it. He said that the Amendment would encourage group trading and group buying. I have mentioned syndicated buying and the forming of syndicates. The word "co-operative" is very misleading, but the Amendment is a distinct improvement and I congratulate the Government upon it.