§ 21. Mr. Pardoeasked the Secretary of State for the Environment if he will consider proposing the removal of some of the statutory obligations of local authorities in order to reduce next year's rating burden.
§ Mr. John SilkinNo, Sir. It would be premature to do this until the Layfield Committee reports.
§ Mr. PardoeIs the right hon. Gentleman aware that his right hon. Friend's assessment that rates will rise by only 25 per cent. is a cruel farce in the light of his answer to me earlier this week that the special rate relief for domestic ratepayers will be discontinued in 1975–76? Are the right hon. Gentleman and his right hon. Friend aware that we may all have to choose between the decimation of statutory services, including the education service, and facing the first tax strike in this country?
§ Mr. SilkinThe hon. Gentleman has put his supplementary question with his customary moderation. When the figure of 25 per cent. was mentioned—it has been mentioned on several occasions— my right hon. Friend has specifically stated, repeatedly, that 25 per cent. is the average. We shall have to see what happens. An average means that some will pay less and some will pay more.
The hon. Gentleman put several points in what I prefer to regard as an intervention rather than a supplementary question. One of them was about teachers' salaries——
§ Mr. PardoeNo.
§ Hon. Members: Education.
§ Mr. SilkinEducation, I am sorry. I imagined that teachers' salaries were used for education. I understand that there was a proposal during the election campaign—it may have come from both parties opposite—that teachers' salaries should be paid from a central fund rather than by local government, and I think the words used were "in the immediate term". That would come to about £1,000 million. My right hon. Friend is giving to local authorities next year an increase of not £1,000 million but £2,000 million.
§ Mr. TomlinsonDoes my right hon. Friend agree that if we pursue the logic of the hon. Member for Cornwall, North (Mr. Pardoe) and altogether removed teachers' salaries from the rates, the main beneficiaries would not be domestic ratepayers but commercial and industrial ratepayers, who have already received substantial benefit from my right hon. Friend's Budget?
§ Mr. SilkinThat may or may not be true, but my views are not important. What is important in this connection is the Layfield Committee's Report. That was why the Layfield Committee of Inquiry was set up, and it will answer in due course.