§ Major Profumoasked the Parliamentary Secretary to the Ministry of Works and Planning whether, instead of drafting employees from small building firms to large contractors which results in the redundancy of the small builder, leaving a considerable amount of plant and machinery idle, a system of co-operative concentration will be applied in respect of small firms so that they can be employed as firms on local contracts?
§ Mr. HicksIf the Government's building programme is to be completed to time, it is inevitable that there must be a considerable transfer of labour at present employed on maintenance and less essential work; and it would not in my Minister's opinion be practicable to effect the concentration of the small firms in the building industry in sufficient time to meet the immediate needs. As a general policy, however, my Minister, as stated in my reply to the hon. Member for Maidstone (Mr. Bossom) on 12th May, is in favour of the maximum use of the smaller builders and is in continuous consultation 347W with the employers' organisations on this question. The present arrangements allow for the smaller contracts to be undertaken by local firms and for a substantial amount of sub-contracting in which the smaller firms will participate. Also, my Ministry is prepared to consider tenders for building works from building organisations that have grouped themselves for the purpose of carrying out war building work subject to the conditions set out in the reply which I gave on 25th June, 1942, to the hon. Member for Maryhill, Glasgow (Mr. Davidson).