The Gazette 1967/71

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. 201