§ We must now turn to the domestic front. The outstanding features there are the still growing cost of the war, the sums we have to raise in taxation to meet it, and the borrowing programme necessary to provide the balance. The cost of the war has now reached the stupendous figure of £13,000,000,000, and the total of all our expenditure, including Debt charges and normal Civil Services throughout the war period, amounts to some £15,600,000,000. We have managed not only to meet the great war expenditure but to go on steadily developing our social services, which mean so much to the health and happiness of large numbers of our people. The social services, excluding payments in respect of unemployment, cost £160,000,000 in 1938. They will cost £219,000,000 in 1943, and this is apart from the considerable sums we are expending in connection with our stabilisation policy, to which I shall refer later. Two other matters should be noted. The increases which have been granted during the war, with the unanimous approval of this House, in the pay and allowances of the Fighting Services will cost some £159,000,000 in the year 1943, excluding the year's post-war credits for the Forces. We have also made payments under the War Damage Act in compensation for damaged buildings, business plant and machinery, and private chattels exceeding the total sum we have received in premiums and contributions.
§ Our war expenditure itself has been steadily increasing throughout the year. It is substantial evidence of our growing strength and power. When I opened my first Budget in 1940 we were spending about £5,000,000 a day on the war. At the time of my last Budget the rate was £12,500,000. It is now £15,000,000. I know the recital of these immense figures will again raise in all our minds the question whether we are doing all we can to avoid waste and extravagance, which are unpardonable offences at this hour. I have many times in this House referred to the vital need of ensuring that such vast sums are wisely spent, and I have given examples of the steps the Treasury and the Government Departments have taken, in conjunction with the Public Accounts Committee and the Select Committee on National Expenditure, both to cut out waste and to promote efficiency. 944 The Service Departments in particular are continuously reviewing their needs in order to adjust them to the changing circumstances of the war. So far as Government contracts are concerned, we are keeping the machinery under constant scrutiny in order to secure that our necessary supplies are obtained at the lowest possible cost. There is still much to be done, and we must continue our endeavours to ensure that the lower costs which result from greater experience on the part of contractors and increased turnover are adequately reflected in contract prices.
§ As regards the Civil Service, there has been a continuous scrutiny of the staffing arrangements within the Government Departments. Civil Service leave has been curtailed and hours of work lengthened to the maximum extent compatible with efficiency, for there comes a point when further action in that direction defeats its own object. Attention has also been concentrated upon the simplification of departmental procedure. During the last few months an intensive examination has been undertaken of the work of Government Departments in this country, coupled with a special review of certain centres abroad, with the object of curtailing those less essential services which, however desirable or necessary in ordinary times, can hardly be justified under present conditions, and economies in manpower are, I am glad to say, already resulting. Curtailment in itself is not sufficient; it must be supplemented by arrangements to ensure the most appropriate use of the man-power and woman-power which is set free. The Treasury and the Ministry of Labour, together with the Departments concerned and their staff associations, are co-operating to this end, and I have every hope that substantial benefit will result from these efforts.