the war damage may , however , be made good by works which include alterations and additions . it is a feature of the system that no cost of works payment is made until the work has been carried out , although instalments can be paid by arrangement in large projects as the work proceeds . the intention behind the legislation was to insure that the money should be used for reinstatement wherever it was possible and economic to do so and should be paid no sooner and no later than was necessary for this purpose . 4 . if the war damage is not made good a value payment under section 13 of the 1943 act ( conveniently known as a converted value payment ) may be paid . this payment is equal to the amount of the difference between the March 1939 values of the property before damage and after damage , taking account in the value after damage of the value of any repairs for which the commission have already made cost of works payments . this basic value payment is increased ( in current jargon , escalated ) by forty-five or sixty per cent and interest at two and a half per cent per annum from the date of damage is added to the value payment as escalated . this escalation was authorised by the war damage ( increase of value payments ) order 1947 ( S.R &amp; O , no 390 ) . in their exercise of the discretion given by the order to the commission to pay up to sixty per cent , the commission pay the higher percentage where the owner is prevented by planning considerations from making good the damage or where he redevelops the site in a form which can not be accepted as making good with alterations and additions and so can not be the subject of a cost of works payment . 5 . other forms of war damage payment made by the commission are highway payments , clearance payments ( for clearing remains of structures from total loss sites ) and church payments . although differing in certain important ways from the ordinary cost of works payments , the sums paid under these heads have the common feature that they are all payments in respect of works which have been carried out . 6 . the commission received notifications that war damage had been sustained in respect of over three and a half million properties . they have paid over four million claims for the cost of making good war damage ( in many cases more than one claim is necessary because reinstatement is not wholly carried out in one operation ) . the total so far for cost of works and the analogous payments is a little over &amp;pound;1,000 million and the total for value payments ( of which there were about 180,000 ) is a little over &amp;pound;250 million . as against this about &amp;pound;200 million was collected by the inland revenue department in the period 1941-46 in the form of statutory contributions under the war damage act from property owners . the total amount paid out by the commission in each of the last five years is as follows : the largest amount paid out in any one year was &amp;pound;220 million in the year to 31st March , 1948 . outstanding liability to make payments . 7 . under the present system it must be left to owners of properties for which cost of works payments are appropriate to carry out the repairs or rebuilding when they wish to do so and make their claims thereafter . it has not been possible to make any accurate or exhaustive record of the extent of the work which still remains to be done at any particular date . there is a vast volume of files far too large for examination by a normal sized staff and in any case owners were not at the time of notifying damage required ( indeed , would not have been able ) to give details of the repairs that would ultimately be necessary . there is at present no power to compel owners to carry out the work ; nor would the commission &apos;s records enable them to identify the properties still in need of repair or rebuilding even if they had the power to hasten the work . the actual direction and execution of the work are matters for the owner and his advisers and contractors . the commission &apos;s statutory duty is to reimburse the cost incurred , so far as reasonable , and they are not a party to any of the contracts for the repair of war damage . it is considered probable that the cost of carrying out all the outstanding repairs would not exceed &amp;pound;40 million but this is a rough estimate for which no exact basis exists . the actual figure might be well above this or much less . there are , however , good reasons for believing that there are about 90 properties ( including churches , town halls , factories , etc ) in which the cost of the outstanding works may be expected to exceed &amp;pound;50,000 ( a few claims may exceed this amount by a very large sum ) and that the total for those properties alone may amount to some &amp;pound;15 million . 8 . the reasons given by owners for their failure or inability to carry out reinstatement are various . uncertainty about development plans and the intentions of local authorities with regard to acquisition is a major cause ; and in some large organisations , particularly among local authorities , there has been a degree of hesitancy about the general reinstatement policy that has delayed considerably the making good of war damage . some owners say they have no money for the ordinary maintenance work which would have to be carried out along with the war damage repairs . where properties are held on lease with a relatively short term unexpired the repairs have in some cases been deferred because the lessee did not wish to carry out the works . illness , old age or a general reluctance to having workmen on the premises has prevented a minority of householders from completing repairs . whatever the reasons for delay in claiming , the government are anxious to ensure that all who have an entitlement should be given every reasonable opportunity to secure it , and , if there is to be a closing down , they are determined that no one shall be able to complain of any lack of notice . indeed , one of the prime purposes of this white paper is to draw the attention of all interested persons , whether private owners , church authorities , local government officers or company officials responsible for the management of property , and of professional advisors in general to the need for making immediate arrangements for negotiation with the war damage commission about the extent of the damage , with a view to putting the outstanding war damage repairs in hand as soon as possible or , where the repairs are not to be carried out , claiming a converted value payment . 9 . in addition to the payments system for land and buildings described above the war damage act , 1943 , provided in part 2 for two insurance schemes administered by the board of trade : - ( a ) a business chattels scheme to cover plant and machinery ; and ( b ) a private chattels scheme to cover household and commercial chattels . payments were on an insured value basis and were not related to replacement costs . under ( a ) about &amp;pound;77 million was collected in premiums and &amp;pound;93 million has been paid out in claims ; under ( b ) about &amp;pound;16 million was collected in premiums and &amp;pound;116 million has been paid out in claims . every householder was entitled to a certain amount of free cover ( for example up to &amp;pound;350 for a married man with two children ) and it is estimated that if the effect of this is allowed for the claim payments would be more in line with the premiums collected . in addition to the actual amounts paid on losses accrued interest at two and a half per cent paid to claimants on the amounts due under both schemes has accounted for about &amp;pound;21 million to date . the date for final payments under the private chattels scheme was fixed at 14th July , 1947 , and under the business chattels scheme at 1st October , 1953 , but a certain number of claims remain unpaid ( for example because the claimant could not be traced ) and are thought to amount to about &amp;pound;1,120,000 plus accrued interest at two and a half per cent . government proposal to make a final settlement . 10 . the justification for the winding-up of the system at this date and the abolition of the war damage commission is self-evident . it becomes increasingly difficult , year by year , to distinguish between genuine war damage and ordinary dilapidation through lack of maintenance . it probably comes as a surprise to many people to know that the war damage commission is still in existence , that payments are still being made and , even to those who are aware that the system lingers on , to know what the possible total of outstanding liability is . the government &apos;s view is that after the passage of sixteen years since the end of the war it would be fair to require owners to begin the outstanding repairs at once and if for any reason they are unable to do so to give them the same payment ( a converted value payment , that is ) as has already been given to the many owners who applied for such a payment and satisfied the commission that for one reason or another they were unable or unwilling to make good the war damage . the act of 1943 long ago substantially achieved its original objective of getting owners to reinstate their damaged properties expeditiously and without the risk of the inflation which the issue on a grand scale of cash payments for the properties which were not total losses would have caused . the time has now come to get the remaining work done quickly or to give owners a payment to encourage them instead to make a different and perhaps better use of their property . the main provisions of a closure operation . 11 . it is considered essential that the winding up should be done in two stages with two statutory time limits : ( 1 ) . a registration date for giving notice of an intended claim for payment and of outstanding war damage , after which date no notice of claim in respect of any additional works will be admitted . this provision is designed to stimulate owners to take action , to put a barrier to the flow of claims which might otherwise trickle on almost indefinitely , and to inform the commission of the approximate total liability which remains to be met . ( 2 ) . a closing date for executing any registered war repairs which owners are willing and able to carry out at once , for the negotiation and payment of the resulting claims and for the negotiation and payment of converted value payments where there is no intention or prospect of the work being carried out during the post-registration statutory period . in short , the most practical and fair method is to eliminate all future claims after due notice by providing for registration , including registration of work already in hand , and then allow a further limited period for the orderly disposal of the registered works in consultation with the commission . 12 . except so far as modifications are necessitated by the closure , the existing principles and structure of the war damage act , 1943 , will be preserved . the comparative absence of criticism during the past 20 years testifies to the aptness of the original provisions and to the good quality of the administration . the advantages of continuity , when it does not conflict with the main purpose , can not be over-estimated . administration on well established and uncontroversial lines for the benefit of owners and professional men who have come to expect and accept certain procedures will undoubtedly help to effect a smooth running-down of the machine , a running-down which has in fact been in progress for some time , but which must now be given the promise of finality . 13 . the following paragraphs contain a brief account of the measures proposed to effect a winding-up of the system by means of an amendment of the war damage act , 1943 . these measures were foreshadowed in the statement by its financial Secretary to the Treasury quoted at the beginning of this paper . 