Lord Dunmore in the House of Lords on Wednesday drew
attention to the financial relations between the Imperial Exchequer and local authorities. He pointed out that the present local expenditure was £160,000,000 a year, while the Imperial expenditure was £170,000,000. The public business of the country was costing not far short of a million pounds a day. The total amount of relief from the Imperial to local funds had fallen by more than two million pounds since 1908. Lord Dunmore especially emphasised the fact that London received an unfairly small share of this relief in comparison with her burden. He hoped that the Government would hasten to remedy the evil, especially as "the Prime Minister had expressed his sympathy with the grievances of the ratepayers, and Mr. Lloyd George's opinion was that whatever party was in power would have to deal with the question next year." Lord Crewe replied that "he could state distinctly that the Government, if in a position to do so next year, would make an attempt to deal with the whole of the subject."
Previous page
