§ Mr. Gibsonasked the Minister of Health when he expects to receive a report from the Committee on London Government.
§ Mr. BevanI have felt that it was only fair to this committee to relieve them of the necessity of proceeding further with their investigation into the local government problem within the Administrative County of London. The local authorities most closely affected have taken the view that the problem before the Committee was only one facet of the many sided problem of Greater London and that in advance of an inquiry into this wider problem they could submit little more than factual evidence to the Committee. It has become increasingly apparent that the problem which the Committee was asked to undertake cannot satisfactorily2W be divorced from that of Greater London and that any determination of the areas of Metropolitan Borough Councils and of the distribution of functions between them and the London County Council must await an investigation into the wider problem, which must in turn await the settlement of the range of functions, old and new, which are to be entrusted to local authorities.