§ 43. Mr. Greyasked the Minister of Food if he is aware that wherever an article of food is subject of a downward price control that commodity immediately either disappears from the market or becomes almost unprocurable; and what steps he intends to take to remedy this situation.
§ Dr. SummerskillI cannot agree that my hon. Friend's suggestion is of general validity. As I should like to explain this fully, I will, with permission, circulate a statement in the OFFICIAL REPORT.
§ Following is the statement:
§ Reduction in a maximum retail price or the imposition of a price control does not have this result if distribution is controlled as it is for most important foods. In other cases imposition of price control is usually associated with seasonal changes in supplies. Thus we do not generally attempt to fix maximum prices for such things as tomatoes or new potatoes when the quantities coming forward are very small. Naturally suppliers try to sell as much as possible immediately before the imposition of price control, and supplies immediately afterwards are correspondingly short for a time. Moreover, control is apt to cause an apparent shortage because more people are anxious to buy at the lower prices. The position is gradually adjusted as the season progresses.
35§ Where, however, supplies are subject to wide fluctuations due to weather conditions, as in the case of green vegetables, I do agree that price control may have undesirable effects and that for scarce articles in the luxury category where a uniform distribution scheme cannot be imposed it would encourage favouritism and evasion in one form or another.