§ Mr. Armstrongasked the Secretary of State for Education and Science why the Government have decided not to accept the recommendation of the Committee on Social Studies that a joint board of the various research councils should be set up to deal with research in urban planning.
§ Mr. CroslandThe main reason for not accepting this recommendation is that the research councils concerned could not provide the professional skills—for example architecture and civil engineering—which are needed, in addition to scientific advice, in judging needs and proposals for research in this field. Another reason is that under such an arrangement research in urban planning would be primarily dependent on support from three research councils, none of which would have more than a peripheral interest in this essentially interdisciplinary field of work.