I do not know whether it was an extra-statutory concession, but this appears to me, according to what the Financial Secretary has said, to have been the Scottish practice until 1963. This practice should not have been reversed by the legislation that was passed last year. It should have been continued and this would have been more in accord with the Scottish attitude towards feu duties.

In the course of our rather lengthy correspondence, the Financial Secretary says that feu duties are similar to rents and all sorts of other things. I should have thought that the feu duty was more in the nature of an interest payment. It is certainly looked upon by the legal profession in Scotland more as an interest payment than anything else. I think that it is true to say that when feus are advertised for sale in Scotland they are, in fact, advertised as such. Therefore, it seems to me that they are very much akin to the interest which one pays on mortgages, and which are accepted as a general charge against income. I should have thought that that was the analogy more applicable than the analogy which the Minister has made in the course of his long correspondence with me on this subject.

Then, because there is this Scottish legal attitude, I submit that we have another reason for saying that what was the practice until 1963 in Scotland should have been continued afterwards. The whole question of general charges against income is very involved. It is full of anomalies, and it is very difficult for the ordinary owner-occupier to understand why his feu duty cannot be accepted as a charge against income while his bank overdraft can be. There seems to be no rhyme or reason in that difference, and Scottish owner-occupiers think that there is more justification for the feu duty to be accepted as a charge against income than charges on a bank overdraft.

Does the Minister realise that a great many owner-occupiers are now worse off than they were prior to the abolition of the Schedule A tax? By virtue of the change which has taken place, an extra burden has been placed on owner-occupiers. That is particularly unfortunate in Scotland for, if the Government wish to encourage home owenrship, as I believe they do, then the Government's practice must not be to prevent it. In Scotland there has been considerable discussion over the last two or three years about whether we are building sufficient owner-occupier houses. This. I would point out, has a relationship to industry, and it seems to me that there is a case for encouraging more owner-occupiers in Scotland. It should be encouraged to a much greater extent proportionately with the population. If the Government would like to see this, then it seems that we have another argument for accepting this Clause.

I will say no more, because I think that the Minister is pretty fully seized of the facts. I hope that he has listened to my few points and, having heard them, I ask him to be more kindly disposed towards my case and perhaps even to promise to look at this matter and introduce a Clause of his own to meet the points which I have raised.