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6. The problem is whether we should try and arrest this process, and if so, how we can do so. The longer we put it off, the more of these historic houses will have disappeared for ever.
The Proposals of the Gowers Committee
7. The full summary of recommendations contained in the Report is annexed to this note. The following paragraphs give the main proposals.
8. The Committee recommend that statutory Councils should be created for England and Wales and for Scotland, which should be entrusted with the duty of furthering the preservation of historic houses. The Councils should be appointed by me (in consultation with the Secretary of State for the Scottish Council) and I should be responsible for them to Parliament; failing this the Minister of Works should appoint them and be responsible for them. They should advise Government Departments, planning authorities, private owners and others on all matters relating to historic buildings and their contents. They should compile a list of outstanding houses, and, where necessary, their contents, which would be described as " desig- nated houses" to which the special provisions mentioned below would apply.
9. The Councils would also be executive bodies, receiving grants-in-aid for their activities; they should have power to aid the preservation of designated houses and their contents by giving expert advice, by carrying out works, and by giving loans and grants at their discretion; they should have the power to acquire desig- nated houses by agreement, or compulsorily, if that is necessary to preserve them. They should advise the Minister of Local Government and Planning on his use of the powers of " negative preservation "i.e., telling owners what they may not do with their property-which he already has under the Town and Country Planning Acts; but he would remain finally responsible for them.
10. The other main feature of the proposals of the Gowers Committee is a series of tax reliefs in favour of the owner-occupiers of designated houses. The Committee's expressed policy is that these houses should, so far as possible, be preserved as private residences occupied, preferably, by the families connected with them; from which they drew the conclusion that it should be made as easy as possible for owner-occupiers to retain their ownership. Subject to various condi- tions, such as agreeing to show their houses to the public, owner-occupiers of designated houses would get the following exemptions:
(a) relief from income-tax and sur-tax in respect of approved expenditure on repairs to and maintenance of the house and contents (this goes far beyond the relief now allowable, which, broadly speaking, cannot exceed the amount of the Schedule "A
A " assessment on the property and takes no account at all of expenditure on contents of the house);
(b) relief from death duties on the house, listed contents, and amenity land,
so long as they were not sold; and
(c) relief from death duties (subject to certain conditions) of property assigned
to trustees to maintain the house out of that property.
Objections to the Gowers Proposals
11. I find the main proposals unacceptable as they stand. The form of organisation which they propose is open to several objections:--
:
(a) I am not in favour of the Treasury taking on direct responsibility for yet another body; if the Councils were to be set up on the lines proposed by the Committee we should have to fall back on their alternative recom- mendation that the Minister of Works should be responsible for them. (b) There is bound to be overlapping with the functions of the Minister of
Works, who has to maintain, in any event, a staff of architects and craftsmen of the kind who would be needed by the Councils. At least it would be highly inconvenient, and I understand that it would be unacceptable to the Minister, that he and his creature, the Council, should be competitors in the market for this highly skilled man-power, or alternatively that he should allow his own creature to use his staff on an agency basis. In short, if the Minister is finally responsible, there is no need for the Council as an intermediary,
Pagecde hobike withdrawing expenditure on this kind of service from the direct
control of Parliament and meeting it by a grant-in-aid.
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