PUBLIC WORKS LOANS BILL (Hansard, 1 December 1949)

§ LORD LUCAS OF CHILWORTH

My Lords, I need detain your Lordships only a few minutes. This is an enabling Bill, to enable the Public Works Loan Commissioners to make cash advances up to £500,000,000 and including commitments up to a total not exceeding £680,000,000 in respect of public works during a period commencing with the passing of this Act to such a time as it is necessary to pass another Act for similar purposes. The present Act came into operation on July 13, 1948, when it was anticipated that the sum authorised would last until late 1949 or early 1950. That Act authorised amounts similar to those asked for in this Bill—£500,000,000 for advances and £680,000,000 for advances plus commitments. At the beginning of November, from this authorisation, cash advances had been £316,000,000, of which £285,500,000 has been expended on housing, £14,000,000 on education, £9,500,000 on public health, £44,000,000 on gas, transport, land drainage and the like, and £7,000,000 on stock redemption. The cash balance in hand of the £500,000,000 was, therefore,£140,000,000. The commitments which have to be taken into account amount to £225,000,000. This sum of £225,000,000, added to the £360,000,000, makes a total of £585,000,000, which leaves only 1200 £95,000,000 out of the authorised sum of £680,000,000. Current cash advances are being made at the rate of between £8,000,000 and £9,000,000 a week, and so it must be anticipated that by about February or March next the authorised sum will be exhausted.

That is the reason for this Bill, and I would add that as soon as this Bill, if agreed to, becomes law, all the commitments which have been made under the existing Act, together with cash advances about to be made, will have to come out of the authorisation which this Bill grants. As I have said, this is an enabling Bill and does not commit the expenditure of the amounts. As is known, applications for loans have to be sanctioned by appropriate Government Departments before they go to the Public Works Loan Commissioners and, therefore, this measure does not in any way override the policy of His Majesty's Government on capital expenditure. I beg to move that this Bill be read a second time.