METROPOLITAN POLICE (BORROWING POWERS) BILL. (Hansard, 28 March 1935)

THE EARL OF FEVERSHAM
My Lords, you will remember that early in the present Session the noble Lord, Lord Snell, raised the subject of the housing of the Metropolitan Police, and that in replying for the Home Office I was able to assure your Lordships that the Government had approved of a general scheme for rehousing the Metropolitan Police and that their proposals for making the necessary financial provision would be submitted to Parliament as early as possible. Those proposals have since passed another place without amendment, and it now falls to me to submit them to your Lordships. The Bill is a short one and I need not detain your Lordships for long, particularly as I dealt with the matter in some detail on the previous occasion.
In effect the Bill is designed to deal with the third stage of the reorganisation of the Metropolitan Police which has been in progress during the last few years, the first stage being the redistribution of the force and the second the measures carried out under the Metropolitan Police Act, 1933. It necessarily involves a large-scale programme of building, and on weighing the alternatives the Government have come to the conclusion that the preferable course is to meet the bulk of the expenditure by borrowing so as to carry out the programme in from seven to ten years. For this fresh powers are necessary. In Clause 1, therefore, the Receiver is authorised to borrow sums not exceeding £4,000,000 for the purposes set out in the clause. The first of these comprises section houses for the unmarried constables, and married quarters. I need hardly remind your Lordships that the existing section houses for the most part are altogether out of date. We propose to reconstruct or rebuild them in such a way as to provide the men with reasonable comfort, and the cost of dealing adequately with this part of the problem is estimated at £1,750,000. In the case of married quarters it is proposed to 455 provide in all some 800 additional sets of quarters at a total expenditure of between £500,000 and £750,000.
The next item is establishments for police training. This does not include the Police College at Hendon which was opened last year, provision for which was made at the time. The only building in mind at present is a new training school for men entering the force as constables, also to be erected at Hendon, to replace the existing building in Westminster. The cost of the school will be about £300,000. Under the third item—police stations—it is proposed to replace those stations which were built many years ago and are now seriously out of date, and to reconstruct a number of the remainder. This is estimated to cost about £1,250,000. The last item refers to the building at Scotland Yard itself. If the headquarters of the force are to remain at Scotland Yard, and I think your Lordships will agree that this is desirable on all grounds, it is essential that the existing buildings should be extended, and inquiries are in progress with a view to the erection of a new block on a piece of land adjoining the present site. The estimated cost of the new building is between £300,000 and £400,000.
The total of these amounts is about £4,500,000, of which, as I have already indicated, it is proposed to find up to £4,000,000 by loan. It may be taken that in round figures the actual cost to the Exchequer during the currency of the loans will be about £100,000 per annum. As the cost of the Metropolitan Police is shared in approximately equal parts by the Exchequer and the ratepayers of the Metropolitan Police District, there will be a corresponding additional cost to the latter, which on the basis of the present figures will amount to the produce of a farthing rate each year. It is proposed that the loans should be obtained, in consultation with the Treasury, as and when required, and either by public offer or, as Clause 2 provides, through the Public Works Loan Commissioners, whichever is the more advantageous, and the interest rate will of course be the most favourable that can be obtained at the actual time. I beg to move.

§ LORD SNELL
My Lords, I shall only take one minute of your Lordships' time 456 to say how grateful I am to the noble Earl and to the Government for responding to the appeal to reconsider this matter. It is a most pressing matter. I cannot go into the question of whether I think the proposals adequate, but that the Government have agreed to do something is a matter for congratulation.

LORD REMNANT
My Lords, I shall not detain your Lordships for more than a moment. I should like to say that this Bill, a not unimportant Bill, is welcome in all quarters because it will enable the Commissioner to carry out by a long-term programme of building an improvement in the accommodation of the Metropolitan Police Force. It is admitted on all sides that many of the buildings are old-fashioned and unsuitable for modern requirements. Quarters for both married and single members of the force are in short supply, so that a large percentage have to provide their own accommodation in an area where rents are admittedly higher than the average. Returns show that a large number of Metropolitan Police officers have to supplement the rent allowance by substantial sums from their own resources in order to live under decent conditions and within reasonable distance of their work. In view of the time—I understand up to ten years—that must elapse before the full benefits of this Bill can be felt, I should like to ask the noble Earl if the authorities cannot see their way to be, perhaps, rather more generous towards those men, who, I understand, have made representations to the proper quarters, although I do not think that this matter is entirely relevant to this Bill, which will enable so much to be done in the future.