§ 1. Mr. Osborneasked the Chancellor the Exchequer the approximate amount received weekly by the 23,436,000 total working population if the total amount of wages, salaries, pensions, interest and dividends, after payment of Income and Surtax were equally divided.
§ The Financial Secretary to the Treasury (Mr. John Boyd-Carpenter)The total amount of wages, salaries, pensions, interest and dividends in the year 1951, after Income Tax and Surtax, is estimated at £9,741 million. This total includes professional earnings, farming income, profits of sole traders and partnerships, and other forms of property income in respect of which separate figures of income after tax are not available. The total working population in mid-1951 was 23,323,000; £9,741 million, divided by 23,323,000, yields £8 0s. 8d. weekly per head.
§ Mr. OsborneDo I understand, therefore, that if there were no rationing by the purse the Socialist Members of the House would have to accept less than half the salary they are now getting despite the fact that most of them—many of them—say they cannot live on the income they already have?
§ Mr. Boyd-CarpenterThat does not arise out of this Question.
§ Mr. ShinwellIs there any reason to believe that workers receiving £6 a week or less would object to having a rise to £8 a week?
§ Mr. Boyd-CarpenterIt seems to me that that also does not arise out of this Question.
§ 2. Mr. Osborneasked the Chancellor of the Exchequer if he is aware that the latest United Nations estimates show a fall in the income per capita in Britain from $773 to $639 between 1949 and 1951, whereas Canada shows an increase from $870 to $1,162 while the United States increase is from $1,453 to $1,787 for the same years; what steps he proposes to take to make the nation realise the gravity of its economic position; and what fresh action he proposes to take to save us from economic disaster.
§ The Economic Secretary to the Treasury (Mr. R. Maudling)The apparent fall between 1949 and 1951 in the national income per caput of the U.K. quoted by my hon. Friend is due to a change in the method used by the United Nations Secretariat for converting national incomes from national currencies into dollars. The figures are, therefore, not comparable.
As regards the remainder of the Question, I would refer my hon. Friend to the speeches my right hon. Friend the Chancellor has made inside and outside the House.
§ Mr. OsborneCould my hon. Friend give the comparable figures if the same calculations were used, because when I obtained these figures in New York, four months ago, I was not told there was any alteration in the basic calculation?
§ Mr. MaudlingIt would be difficult to do so. The figures in 1949 were based on converting pounds into dollars, on a rough estimate of the comparative cost of living in each country. In 1951 the basis was the official exchange rates. In fact, between 1949 and 1951, it is estimated, the real income per head in the United Kingdom rose by 3½ per cent.