HC Deb 03 July 1956 vol 555 cc98-9W
Commander Maitland

asked the Chancellor of the Exchequer whether he will make a statement on the contribution of Her Majesty's Government to the Lord Mayor's National Flood and Tempest Distress Fund.

Mr. H. Macmillan

Yes. I am informed by the authorities of the Fund that all claims upon it have now been met and a sum set aside for the Princess Victoria Distress Fund and grants to dependants, and that the objects for which this Fund was set up have thus been entirely discharged. The total disbursed by the Fund was £7,270,000 of which Her Majesty's Government subscribed £2,105,000.

The House will recall that in February, 1953, Her Majesty's Government undertook to pay £1 for every £1 of private donations to the Fund. Had the Fund required for the full discharge of its purposes the rest of the amount which the Government undertook to pay, an additional £3 million would have been drawn from the Exchequer. This sum will not now be required for the relief of the victims of the disasters of 1953, and the Fund has no other function on which this money may be spent. I have considered very carefully what arrangements should be made in these circumstances. Several of the needs which the disasters of 1953 brought into prominence, e.g., strengthening the sea defences on the East Coast and elsewhere, were not the responsibility of the Fund, but were dealt with under existing statutory provisions.

I do not think it would be appropriate to devote the money undrawn by the Fund to the relief of expenditure on these purposes, which should continue to be dealt with under the statutes. I recall the spirit in which the money was originally offered, and I am sure that the House would prefer that I should give an assurance, as I now do, that if storm, flood or tempest again overwhelms a large part of the country as did the floods of 1953, Her Majesty's Government, bearing in mind that £3 million of the money promised on this occasion remained unused, will the more readily ask Parliament to vote an appropriate contribution towards relief of the sufferers, and the money can be used in the way we all intended in 1953.

The administration of the Lord Mayor's Fund has been a remarkable example of voluntary co-operative effort; the Fund's own central organisation, comprising the Advisory Council, the Appeals Committee and Distribution Committee—in all of which Sir Rupert De la Bère has played a central part—was assisted by the Local Flood Relief and Agricultural Relief Committees and by the Princess Victoria Distress Fund Committee and by many charitable organisations, professional institutions, the Bank of England and Government Departments, notably the War Damage Commission. I am sure the House would wish me to pay a warm tribute to the devoted labours of all those who helped in this great work of charity.