§ 39. Mr. Bradleyasked the Minister of Housing and Local Government and Minister for Welsh Affairs if he is aware that the proposed appropriation of corporate land to housing purposes by the Leicester City Council is to be made at a notional price of £100,000, to be charged over a period of 20 years to the Housing Revenue Account, but that the land in fact cost the council a much smaller sum, and that the effect of an appropriation on those terms will be to cause an artificial increase of rent or rate contribution; and whether he will make his consent to the appropriation conditional on the elimination or reduction of any such increase.
§ Sir K. JosephI am aware of the proposal. In accordance with normal practice the appropriation is to be at current market value. To appropriate at less than this would mean an indirect subsidy to housing in Leicester at the expense of the citizens at large, for whose benefit the corporate estate is held.