§ 75. Mr. Wilkinsasked the Minister of Housing and Local Government, whether, in view of the advantages to be derived from a system under which trade effluents are discharged into sewers and treated at the local authorities' works, he will take steps to ensure that the same in- 54W vestment grant should be made available to the local authority as to the industrialist treating his own effluent.
§ Mr. SkeffingtonInvestment grants, which are the responsibility of my right hon. Friend, the President of the Board of Trade, are payable to productive businesses; treatment plant on industrial premises qualifies only if it is used for a process incidental to a productive process. Sewerage authorities are not engaged in productive business and it would not be appropriate to pay investment grant to them. My right hon. Friend has, however, undertaken to consider other suggestions put forward with a similar general objective in view.