I move that the Bill be received for final consideration.
Trade Loans (Guarantee) Bill, 1938—Report and Final Stages.
Question put and agreed to.
When is it proposed to take the Fifth Stage?
If there is no intention of having a discussion on the Fifth Stage I suggest that it be taken to-day, but if it is proposed to have a discussion I would suggest that the Fifth Stage be taken this day week.
I should like to ask a question on the Fifth Stage.
If there is any prospect of a long discussion it must be left over until next week.
Take your chance.
We shall take it now.
I should like to ask the Minister whether he has given any further consideration, since the Committee Stage, to the attitude of persons desiring to finance their housing operations by means of loans under this Act.
The position is as I explained on the Committee Stage. Loans will be available for persons undertaking building operations in the same manner as they will be available for any other manufacturer undertaking the production of some other class of commodity. Under the Trade Loans (Guarantee) Act, we shall not be concerned with, and shall have no power to grant, loans for the purpose of financing house-purchasing. That is a different problem altogether. So far as house-building is concerned, for considerations of policy I would not be disposed to consider any application which did not involve a fairly substantial number of houses, or, in other words, that did not arise in connection with large-scale development.
There is nothing in the Minister's mind that would prevent a company building houses for letting from getting accommodation under the Act?
There is nothing in the Bill to prevent it.
Question—"That the Bill do now pass"—put and agreed to.