Lieut.-Colonel TODDasked the Financial Secretary to the Treasury what would be the cost of redeeming the Local Loan stock raised to finance the Agricultural Credits Act or to pay the difference between an equitable rate of exchange of say 4 per cent. instead of the present high rate of 5 per cent. exacted from the farmers?
§ Mr. COOPERThe total amount of advances made under the Agricultural Credits Acts (England and Scotland) and outstanding on 31st March, 1934, was £3,404,613. The loans were made in the years 1923 to 1928 at 5 per cent. interest and the corresponding amount of Local Loans stock issued was presumably about £5,500,000. A reduction of the rate of interest to 4 per cent, would necessitate an annual subsidy from the Exchequer to the Local Loans Fund of £34,046 for, say, 50 years, the present value of which would be approximately £876,000.