INTERPRETATION (Hansard, 11 July 1975)

§ Mr. Tom King
I beg to move, That this House doth agree with the Lords in the said amendment.

§ Mr. Deputy Speaker
With this Amendment we will take Lords Amendment No. 15, in page 10, line 27, leave out "a."

§ Mr. King
In moving this amendment I should like to take the opportunity of expressing gratitude to all the people who have worked together so harmoniously to produce what I hope will be a valuable measure for people who live in and own mobile homes and sites. On the preceding Bill the Minister of State, Department of the Environment congratulated the hon. Member for Rother Valley (Mr. Hardy) on his luck in the Ballot. I must acknowledge my share of luck in attaining such a high place in the Ballot. I hope the House will feel that the use I have made of it has been worth while and that with the help of hon. Members on both sides of the House we have produced a measure which will be of genuine benefit to people who live in and own mobile homes and sites.
I am very grateful to the Under-Secretary of State for Industry who has been concerned with the Bill. I have enjoyed working with him. It is right that I should pay tribute to the work he has done on the Bill and the help he has rendered. I acknowledge in particular the help of his officials and the friendly and constructive way in which they have dealt with the Bill and enabled speed to be gathered at times when it was needed. We have thereby managed to avoid delays between the various stages of the Bill.
I am particularly grateful to my parliamentary agent, Mr. Colin Winser, to whom I have paid tribute before on his sustained record of endurance on the Bill which I hope I can afford but for which I am enormously grateful. I have already paid tribute to Lord Elton for the work he has done on the Bill. It would be wrong to leave out such bodies as the National Caravan Council and its Director General, Mr. Innes, the National 974 Federation of Site Operators, and Colonel Bennett, and the Mobile Home Residents Association and its General Secretary, Mr. Orpin, for the way in which they have co-operated in promptly attending discussions, sometimes called at short notice.
I do not pretend that the Bill is the perfect answer to the problem. I am aware that there are still many loopholes in it. I therefore welcome the on-going review, because with any Bill there should be a close monitoring of its progress. This Bill is a little unusual in that the monitoring procedure was created before its passage to the statute book. The review will monitor the working of the Bill. I am sure that that is right, because none of us would be so conceited as to say that his Bill was perfect.
Benefits will flow from the Bill, but much will depend on people's attitudes. The operation of it will be watched, and if there are serious abuses under it perhaps more serious measures will have to be taken. I commend the technical amendments to the House.

§ Mr. Deputy Speaker
Before I call the next speaker, I should point out that we must have some semblance of order. I am the most tolerant of men, especially on Fridays, but Third Reading speeches should be limited.

§ Mr. Armstrong
In supporting the Lords amendment, I should like to congratulate the hon. Member for Bridgwater (Mr. King). In a Parliament in which the legislative programme has been very heavy, it is a great achievement by the hon. Gentleman to bring the Bill to a successful conclusion. In the review of which I am to be in charge, I shall no doubt be greatly helped by the Bill, which, in a sense, is a holding operation in the provision of homes for our people. I am therefore delighted to be associated with the Bill.

§ Mr. Carol Mather (Esher)
I also congratulate my hon. Friend the Member for Bridgwater (Mr. King) on his Bill. I did not know very much about it before this morning, but I have listened with great interest to the discussions. I am pleased to have played a small, but important, part in the progress of the Bill through the House.

§ Mr. Michael Ward (Peterborough)
I know that my hon. Friend the Member 975 for Renfrewshire, West (Mr. Buchan) would wish me to thank the hon. Member for Bridgwater (Mr. King) for his kind remarks, which those of us who have served on the Standing Committee would share. My hon. Friend the Member for Renfrewshire, West made a most useful contribution in introducing the provisions that extended the legislation to Scotland.
I congratulate the hon. Member for Bridgwater. He has undoubtedly done a great deal for a rather under-privileged section of the community who seem to be held in low esteem because of the feeling, even among local authority officials, that their homes are substandard and that there is something rather peculiar about people who wish to live in mobile homes. I think the spirit of accord and partnership both on the Committee and with the interests outside has firmly established that this is not the case. Many people expect to live in mobile homes for 20 or 30 years, and the homes are now being built with this sort of life in view.
The Bill will do a great deal for the community and will be much appreciated in my constituency and elsewhere. Unfortunately, I was unable to be present for the discussion of certain parts of the Bill recently. There are still points of disagreement between hon. Members and between site owners and tenants, for instance over charges and reviews, but they are minor differences and this is a very worthwhile Bill.

§ Mr. Deputy Speaker
This should not be taken as a precedent.