Lieut.-Colonel T. WILLIAMSasked the Minister of Transport, seeing that a new Order dealing with the amalgamation of all the electric undertakings in and around London is to be published by the Ministry of Transport, and that various London supply companies are seeking extensions of time for their Provisional Orders, if he will take steps to ensure that the interests of the consumers are safeguarded in the matter of prices for lighting and power, meter rents, and maximum charges for electric current, and that a sliding scale of dividends based on the price charged for electricity be established in the same way as the sliding scale of gas companies?
§ Mr. GOSLINGThe Electricity Commissioners are about to issue a new Draft Order for re-organising the supply of electricity in London and district. This Draft Order, which must form the subject of a Local Inquiry, will contain provisions to ensure the regulation of prices and dividends of the London companies in the event of the companies being granted an extension of tenure under the provisions of Section 14 of the Electricity Supply Act, 1922.