More Building Concessions
Persons who wish to enlarge their houses by about 10 per cent., or to convert up to three adjoining houses laterally into flats, or to carry on their own small business at home will soon be able to do so without payment of a development charge to the Govern- ment. This is the effect of new regulations which, as he announced in the House of Commons on Tuesday, the Minister of Town and Country Planning is about to make. They may sound like very small concessions—as indeed they are. What is more, by making the concessions in the form of individual variations in the standard 100 per cent. development charge, as distinct from the wholesale reduction of the charge, the Minister was carefully keeping the substance of control in his own hand. In fact, he added to his recent offence in referring to the modification of building restric-
tions as " an experiment in freedom "—which phrase, he said, had been taken from its context—by referring to the present changes as "a further little experiment in freedom "—which phrase can only have been deliberate. Obviously, Mr. Dalton really does regard freedom as something only to be allowed in small doses. But the fact remains that some modification of the development charge provided for under the Town and Country Planning Act of 1947 was bound to come sooner or later, and the modifications now proposed are reasonable. Mr. Dalton continues to add to his reputation as a Minister of Town and Country Planning. It is permissible to hope, after his disastrous performance as Chancellor of the Exchequer, that he has now found his niche.
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