Public Credit For Public Purposes

EDM number 408 in 2006-07, proposed by Austin Mitchell on 05/12/2006.

That this House, knowing that enormous sums of money are necessary to improve public services, build a better infrastructure and provide for the well-being of the people, and recognising that further huge additional expenditure will now be necessary to combat global warming, reduce carbon emissions and make public buildings, housing and transport carbon neutral, points out that there is no prospect of raising such huge but necessary sums through normal channels of taxation and borrowing; therefore suggests that the time has come to supplement these by using the power of public credit to increase the amount of publicly-funded money, particularly since this has fallen from 20 per cent. of the money supply in 1964 to 3 per cent. today because the banks have largely taken the issue of credit and taken the seigneurage arising from credit creation for themselves; and calls on the Government to use the power of public credit for public purposes, particularly for the huge expenditure necessary to finance the development of carbon neutrality in a good society.

This motion has been signed by a total of 19 MPs.