§ 6. Mr. Hurdasked the Minister of Agriculture, Fisheries and Food what proposals he has for the nationalisation of agricultural land.
§ Mr. HurdDoes the hon. Gentleman deny, as a consequence of his answer, Press reports that the Government are considering a terrible plan devised by Lord Kaldor in which farmers who cannot pay a wealth tax of, say, 3 per cent. on their land will be compelled to hand over three acres in every hundred to the State?
§ Mr. BuchanThe hon. Gentleman should put that question of Lord Kaldor, who is very approachable. Our proposals, which will be brought forward shortly, relate to land which is subject to development. [Interruption.] I am dealing with the question which is being posed in relation to land. The land proposals we have relate to bringing land into public ownership, where required for development.
§ Mr. SpearingDoes my hon. Friend agree that, although he may not have plans for public ownership in the national sense, some countries—some of which are not of my political colour—have many tenant farmers who rent their farms from county councils, and that this has great advantage and ought to be encouraged?
§ Mr. BuchanNeither I nor the Government have any doctrinaire objections to that principle. There has been a good deal of well administered publicly owned land in agriculture.
§ Mr. Donald StewartDoes not the hon. Gentleman agree, that, whatever the merits or otherwise of nationalisation, as a principle, in other industries, it has been proved in the past that in farming nothing produces better results than a farm owned by the farmer himself?
§ Mr. BuchanThat is probably true. The hon. Gentleman will know of some of the problems which exist in his area where land is owned not by owner-occupier working families but by large estates, and is used for any other purpose than agricultural production.