Town and Country Planning
The debate on the first reading of the Town and Country Planning Bill was to some extent clouded by the intrusion of questions belong- ing to the wider policy of planning which has yet to be presented for Parliamentary discussion. The present measure is essentially an interim one designed to enable local authorities to go ahead with their plans with knowledge of their financial powers in regard to the acquisition of land. It was not very helpful to concentrate, as Labour members did, on the question of land nationalisation, which as everyone knows will not be carried out by a Coalition Government. But there are real objections to the method of procedure adopted by the Government. Urgent as it is to give necessary powers to planning authorities, the logical procedure would have been to pro- duce the wider measure of planning first, forming the background in the light of which this measure should be considered. There is a strong feeling that development will be approached in a narrow local spirit, and that planning on a national scale, taking into con- sideration such vital matters as the location of industry, will not have the place which it should have. But it is agreed that something must be done soon. Mr. Morrison at least promises that full con- sideration will be given to criticisms raised in the Committee stage of the Bill.
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