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The community appreciates their integrity. I do
not think, however, that the extent of their talent
is quite so widely appreciated. This is in part due
to
the old reticence which I believe is now
evaporating.
"Like most countries in the Western world, we
have since the advent of television experienced
a communications explosion. This has served to
arouse a wide and active public interest in com
munity affairs.
"Public servants will need increasingly to win
the understanding and support of the community
in pushing
through projects of national
im
portance. Better and more effective communica
tion is also becoming more and more important
in the industrial and commercial sectors. Workers,
for instance, will need to know more about the
industry in which they are engaged. They must
appreciate the requirements of the markets they
serve.
HIKE PURCHASE DEBT REACHES
RECORD £l,295m
A steep rise in bad hire-purchase debts last
year
lost
finance
houses
and
hire-purchase
companies a record £100 million. A Board of
Trade officials said that the national hire-purchase
iebt stood at a record £1,295 million.
He said: "The hire purchase trend seems to
be upwards. In January, 1970, the debt for finance
houses alone was £780 million. In November it
was £846 million.
"We have still to assess the Christmas spending
figures," he added.
Credit ratings
Mr. Jeffrey Benson, 35, managing director of
Tracing Services group of companies, London,
which keeps a file of five million hire purchase
customers said: "The bad debtors are on the in
crease.
"Families buy colour television sets and cars—
I think it is just to keep up with the Jones's. Then
they find they cannot afford to keep up the pay
ments."
Mr. Benson said many prospective hire pur
chase customers wonder why a stop is put to
their credit.
They do not realise that most retailers refer to
a credit recording firm before granting credit
facilities.
"But we are very conscious that such files as
we keep could be open to abuse. We have drawn
up a code of ethics which has now been put
before the Younger committee on privacy recom
mending that people should have the right to see
their own files and to correct any erroneous in
formation."
Copies of
the company's
recommendations
have
been
circulated
to
every Member of
Parliament, the Confederation of British Industry
and the T.U.C.
(Daily Telegraph,
14th January, 1971)
LEFT MPs FIGHT LAW
COSTS
RISE
A group of Labour M.P.s, mostly Left-wingers,
have tabled motions opposing draft orders before
Parliament that would give solicitors increases
in certain conveyancing charges without the sub
stantial cuts recommended by the Prices and
Incomes Board.
Under the orders drawn up by a statutory
committee of senior judges and solicitors and
signed by Lord Hailsham, the Lord Chancellor,
solicitors would receive increases on a diminish
ing scale for transferring houses up to £3,000.
Proposal dropped
Recommendations in two reports of the Prices
and Incomes Board
that fees for transferring
property priced between £4,000 and £20,000
should be cut by six per cent, have been dropped.
The only cuts would be on houses over £30,000
in sales of 10 or more houses on the same estate
and in work on certain mortgages. The orders
come into force automatically on February 15 un
less motions are passed in Parliament to annul.
Mr. Ashton, M.P., said he regarded the fixing of
solicitors' conveyancing fees as too much of a
"closed shop." The P.I.B., in recommending the
cuts in return for increases in county court fees,
had
recognised
that
solicitors were making
"excess" profits from conveyancing.
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