§ 33. Miss Elaine Burtonasked the Minister of Food the retail prices of bread, butter, bacon, margarine, cheese and tea at 1st October, 1951, and 1st April, 1952, respectively.
§ The Parliamentary Secretary to the Ministry of Food (Dr. Charles Hill)As the reply contains a number of figures, I will, with permission, circulate it in the OFFICIAL REPORT.
§ Miss BurtonMay I ask if there is an increase in each of these six cases and, if the answer is in the affirmative, was that increase taken into account by the Chancellor in estimating the 1s. 6d. rise, or did it date after this increase?
§ Dr. HillIn three of the commodities in question there is no increase; in one of the commodities there is an increase which was referred to by the Chancellor in his Budget Statement. The two remaining increases, for cheese and for bacon, were made necessary to find the £20 million by which the subsidies were running over the level of £410 million when we assumed office.
| Following are the figures: | |||||
| — | Unit | 1st October, 1951 | 1st April, 1951 | ||
| s. | d. | s. | d. | ||
| Bread | 1¾ lb. loaf | 6 | 7½ | ||
| Butter | 1 lb. | 2 | 6 | 2 | 6 |
| Bacon | 1 lb. | 2 | 7 | 3 | 5 |
| (average) | (average) | ||||
| Margarine | 1 lb. | 1 | 2 | 1 | 2 |
| Cheese | 1 lb. | 1 | 2 | 2 | 0 |
| Tea | 1 lb. | 3 | 8 | 3 | 8 |
| (average) | (average) |