XN000022-1974-02-27 — Page 19

Wednesday, February 27, 1974

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The only way of eliminating the difference finally would be to

defer expenditure amounting to $540 million on the new towns, Mr. Haddon-Cave said, unless the the Housing Authority could generate additional contributions from its own resources towards the cost of public housing,

The estimate for the new town is $3,310 million over the three

years of the forecast.

So to defer $540 million worth of expenditure on them would not be

all that serious," the Financial Secretary said.

Mr. Haddon-Cave said he believed that the econory could bear some extra taxation necessary to help finance the extra $680 million needed to raise the level of annual capital expenditure to $2,480 million. He also believed that we could raise loans to finance a few self-liquidating projects.

"So it should be feasible to cut back and phase (on plans, remember,

not actual expenditure) in a rational way," he said.

Commenting on financial control, the Financial Secretary said

there had been a tendency to concede applications for supplementary provision regardless of wider budgetary considerations.

"We have reached the point where a new attitude is required if our developing policies are not to be seriously prejudiced. We must now look much more carefully at the margin of advantage to the community of each proposal to spend more," he said.

/On fees