Speeches, etc.

Margaret Thatcher

Speech in Manchester

Document type: Speeches, interviews, etc.
Venue: Manchester
Source: Manchester Evening News, 17 September 1974
Editorial comments: Evening?
Importance ranking: Major
Word count: 228
Themes: Monetary policy, Housing, Local government

Home loans: Tories would act fast

Mortgage interest rates would be cut to 9½ per cent as soon as possible after the return of a Conservative government, Mrs Margaret Thatcher promised in Manchester last night.

“We did it before and will do it again. And quickly,” she said before returning to London following visits to Liverpool and Bury.

On council houses the Shadow Environment. Secretary said it had been a “fundamental” error to build more and more while letting some of the present houses decay.

“That is why we put into effect modernisation schemes, and we will do the same again.”

Mrs Thatcher thought housing and rates would be the biggest issues at the forthcoming General Election.

Although she commended regional aid programmes, she said she was not in favour of elected regional councils with wider powers than those at present.

An extra layer of Government would be very costly. “And I am sure it would not be popular with the electorate,” Mrs Thatcher added.

Earlier speaking in Bury, Mrs Thatcher said young couples would be encouraged by the Conservatives to buy their own homes.

“The cost to the ratepayer of a new council house is £1,000 a year in subsidies, whereas the cost to the taxpayer of mortgage relief on a new, privately owned house is only £280 a year,” she claimed.