HC Deb 23 February 1956 vol 549 cc545-6
3. Sir L. Ropner

asked the Minister of Labour the cost-of-living index figure on 1st December, 1955, and 1st February, 1956; and by what amount recent changes in the prices of food have influenced the cost-of-living index figure during the period between these dates.

Mr. Iain Macleod

The Retail Prices Index is calculated in respect of prices ruling in the middle of each month and the latest available figures relate to mid-January. At that date the index figure was 153, compared with 154 at mid-December and also at mid-November. Reductions in food prices between mid-November and mid-January were the equivalent of a fall of a little over one point in the all-items index.

9. Lieut.-Colonel Lipton

asked the Minister of Labour by what amount, in the case of the 2 million manual workers whose wages are tied to the Index of Retail Prices, he estimates that the total weekly wage bill is increased to cover each rise of one point in the index.

Mr. Iain Macleod

Only about 10 per cent. of these 2 million workers are covered by agreements which provide for wage adjustments corresponding to each separate movement of one point in the Index of Retail Prices. Owing to the widely differing provisions of the various agreements, it is not possible to estimate the average increase in the total weekly wages bill resulting from each rise of one point in the index.

Lieut.-Colonel Lipton

Is it not clear from that Answer that the Government irresponsibly decided to increase the cost of living by one point as a result of the increased charges for bread and milk without taking the trouble to find out in the case of this particular section of manual workers what the immediate and automatic repercussion would be? Is not this a very slapdash way of doing things?

Mr. Macleod

On the contrary, we knew the position precisely. Something like 70 per cent. of the people covered by these agreements have their agreements revised either quarterly or at six-monthly or yearly intervals, and the two principal trades concerned—those of building and printing—which between them account for about 1¼ million of those concerned—have their agreements revised, in the one case at six-monthly and in the other at yearly intervals; so that this particular matter is not relevant to this particular argument.