HC Deb 11 April 1972 vol 834 cc1019-20
Q2. Sir G. Nabarro

asked the Prime Minister whether the public speech of the Secretary of State for the Environment at Worcester on Friday, 17th March, on housing matters represents Government policy.

The Prime Minister

Yes, Sir.

Sir G. Nabarro

While strongly endorsing the general principles of the speech, may I ask my right hon. Friend whether he is aware that during it the Secretary of State referred to the B.B.C. television programme as incredibly biased and then went on to say that the B.B.C. was not so much interested in social reform and justice as it was in promoting socialism? As the Prime Minister has confirmed that he agrees with the Secretary of State's speech on that occasion, will he please deal properly with the B.B.C. and reform its arrangements to rid us of this incredible bias?

The Prime Minister

It is a responsibility laid by the B.B.C. Charter upon the Chairman and Governors to ensure that there is no bias in the B.B.C.'s programmes. Like my right hon. Friend the Secretary of State, I deeply regret it when bias occurs, but it is the B.B.C.'s responsibility to put its own house in order.

Mr. Frank Allaun

But did not the Secretary of State in that speech in Worcester criticise two Labour Members of Parliament for causing anxiety about the doubling of rents, although the Department itself has admitted in its own document that this is its estimate of the average for each of the ten regions of the country in 1976? Has not the Association of Municipal Corporations, Conservative-controlled as it is, again asked the Government for five major modifications of this outrageous Bill?

The Prime Minister

What my right hon. Friend was criticising was the fact that neither he nor a spokesman of the Department was allowed on the programme on the ground that no politicians were taking part in it but that he then found that two Members from the Opposition were taking part. That is a perfectly sound matter for criticism, in my view. As far as the other aspects of the programme are concerned, it should be pointed out that 1,750,000 local authority tenants and 750,000 private tenants for the first time will be eligible for rent rebates. In other words, 2,500,000 people will thereby pay less.