§ Sir F. WISEasked the Chancellor of the Exchequer the total amount of public credit, loans, and liabilities granted since the Armistice, stating the names of the schemes, with the respective amounts of each section.
§ Mr. RONALD McNEILL, pursuant to his reply [Official Report, 1st March, 1925, col. 1032, Vol. 192], supplied the following information:
1863W
II.—LOANS have been made in the following cases: (The figures refer to the amount unrepaid.) £ From the Local Loans Fund to Local Authorities 98,598,892 To Colonial etc. Governments (net) (for details see Finance Accounts, 1924–25, pp. 96–7) 8,960,101 Under the Land Settlement (Facilities) Acts, 1919 and 1921 14,738,466 Loans for Relief (as detailed in Finance Accounts, 1924–25, p. 98) 21,677,000 Loans for Reconstruction— £ Belgium 9,000,000 Belgium Congo 1,100,000 10,100,000 Loans for Repatriation of Prisoners (see Finance Accounts, 1924–25, p. 98) 1,449,054 The loans to the Allies since the Armistice amounted to £135,263,000, mostly in respect of the period before 31st March, 1919.
III.—As regards continuing public liabilities, various schemes, some of them dating from before the Armistice, involved liabilities which have been liquidated, e.g., Bread (£90,123,622), Corn Production (£18,159,372), Coalmining—Sankey Wage (£7,059,236), Coal Mines Deficiency (£45,139,596), Coastwise Transport (£514,236).
In other cases liabilities are still outstanding, but the figures must be taken as very rough estimates:—Sugar Beet (£1,600,000 spent, liability remaining over a period of years, say £17,000,000), Housing (£46,950,328 spent, liability remaining over a period of years, say £130,000,000).
Further details as to subsidies to industry will be found in a reply to a question by the hon. Member for Wednesbury on the 25th instant, but with the exception of those already mentioned they are unimportant.
For such information as is available as to outstanding liabilities in connection with old age pensions and widows' contributory pensions, reference may be made to the report by the Government Actuary on the Widows', Orphans', and Old Age Contributory Pensions Bill (Command Paper 2406).
The liability for war pensions is estimated as having been at the Armistice £1,046,000,000, and on 1st April, 1925, £760,000,000.