§ 59. Mrs. Braddockasked the Chancellor of the Exchequer, in view of the fact that, since the resources of the Public Works Loan Board are denied to many local authorities and access to the stock market remains rigidly controlled, rates of interest in the only alternative channel open to them, namely, the mortgage market, remain artificially high, if he will now consider making the facilities of the Board available to all local authorities for 107W the purpose of house building or loans for house purchase at rates of interest and subject to conditions not less favourable than those he has granted to building societies.
Mr. AmoryIt is difficult to compare the fixed-interest rate on Public Works Loan Board loans to local authorities with the variable-interest charge proposed in the recent White Paper for Exchequer loans to building societies. In present conditions, the latter charge for 20-year loans would be a little below the former, but this might not always be so.