Wherever one travels in this country at the present time, there is to be found proof of the need for this Supplementary Estimate. I think it is generally accepted that there has been more revision of the valuations of buildings throughout the country in the past year than there has been for a very long time. Certainly that is the position in relation to my own constituency, and I have been told that it is the same in other constituencies. In case the Minister has any doubt in the matter, I am one of the people who have been hit in my constituency.
It does seem to me to be somewhat absurd that, at a time when we are doing our utmost to ensure that people will spend money on keeping buildings in proper repair and on modernising business premises, on making the countryside and the towns generally attractive to tourists, nobody can do the slightest little thing to improve his premises in the smallest degree without having an immediate descent on him for revaluation purposes. That is a deterrent to progress and improvement and it is a feature of our life that will have to be tackled by someone at some stage.
The general method by which the Valuation Office operates is one that must be considered. I want to make it perfectly clear that, in saying that, I am not criticising in any way the valuers or inspectors, or whatever they call themselves, but I do know that there is very considerable delay in completing valuations for certain purposes. There is the verification of estate duty valuation, on the one hand, and stamp duty valuation, on the other. Both of these have got into a system from which it is not feasible to get the results for the taxpayer as quickly as they should be got.
I think that arises because of the system by which valuers go to certain parts of the country only at certain fixed times of the year. I know it is difficult to map out the valuers' work so as to get the best results and at the same time to avoid having the valuers crossing and re-crossing their own tracks. I know that the officials are, at all times, anxious to facilitate as best they can in relation to an urgent request, but the general run of the system is not all that it should be. I want to take this opportunity of asking the Minister to see that something be done to correct it.
I assume that the increase of £500 arises because of the necessity to increase the subsistence allowances, owing to the Budget of last year. If I am correct in that, I need not say anything more on it, as my views are already well known and I expressed them here some time ago. If it is the position in the current year that we wanted £13,200, and the trend is going up all around the country, as I believe it is from what I hear, and that more and more valuations are being made, it is rather extraordinary that for the next year the Minister is asking for less than the revised Estimate here. However, that is a matter which we will discuss when we come to deal with the 1958-59 Estimates.
