§ Squadron Leader A. E. Cooperasked the Minister of Housing and Local Government if he will make a statement about the Chairmanship of the Newton Aycliffe Development Corporation, since the term of office of the present holder will expire in July of this year.
§ Mr. H. MacmillanI have expressed to Lord Beveridge my strong wish that he should continue as Chairman for a further year after July. At the same time, I have told him that in view of his age it would, in my view, be right that at the end of this further year, he should hand over the Chairmanship to another.
Lord Beveridge has replied that although he had hoped to work for a few years longer at Aycliffe, at which he had come to live, he is willing, in the circumstances, to continue as Chairman for the extra year for which I have asked him and to adjust his personal plans accordingly. I am most grateful to Lord Beveridge for this, and I can well understand the regret and sense of impending loss which his colleagues on the Corporation have expressed to me.
I wish to join with them in expressing my appreciation of the energy, enthusiasm and vision which he has brought for nearly five years to a heavy and novel task.