§ Mr. T. GRIFFITHSasked the Minister of Agriculture whether smallholders at Hillingdon, several of whom are ex-service men, have been served with notice to quit by the Middlesex County Council; how many holders are affected; for what reason the notice has been issued: whether the smallholders in question resent the allegations of bad cultivation by the council; whether a promise was made by the council that dwellings should be erected on the land; whether this promise has been kept; and whether he will have an immediate inquiry instituted into the whole circumstances of this case?
Sir A. BOSCAWENI am aware that eight smallholders at Hillingdon have been served with notices to quit by the Middlesex County Council. I understand from the council that the land in question was acquired on annual tenancy, and it was expected that local ex-service applicants would be forthcoming to take the land without equipment. This expectation was not realised, and the land was let to applicants living some distance away, who asked the council to erect houses and buildings. Such building operations would have been expensive and unjustifiable from the point of view of the taxpayer owing to the insecurity of the council's tenure, and the letting of the land in most cases has proved most unsatisfactory as regards proper cultivation. The council, therefore, decided to wind up the scheme and to offer all the tenants who were cultivating their land satisfactorily holdings on the council's small holdings estates elsewhere. I am informed by the council that no definite promise was made to any tenant that a house would be erected for him. The whole circumstances have been fully enquired into by the Ministry's District Commissioner, and I see no reason to institute an inquiry such as is suggested by the hon. Member.