HC Deb 12 June 1958 vol 589 cc407-9
4. Mr. D. Jones

asked the Chancellor of the Exchequer if he will identify the voluntary wage agreements which are causing him anxiety.

The Paymaster-General (Mr. Reginald Maudling)

No, Sir; I do not propose to particularise.

Mr. Jones

If the Chancellor of the Exchequer will not particularise, how can he say that the productivity in any particular industry will not match wage increases given? If the right hon. Gentleman is not prepared to tell this House and the country on what he bases his opinion, would not it be better for him to be more specific rather than to generalise in the way he did last week?

Mr. Maudling

My right hon. Friend said that a number of voluntary wage settlements had been made recently which had given him cause for a good deal of anxiety because they seemed bigger than any probable increase in productivity. My right hon. Friend would be entirely failing in his duty if he did not constantly put to the public that any general increase in wage levels in advance of a general increase in productivity is bound to result in higher prices.

Hon. Members

What about the Rent Act?

Mr. Robens

The Chancellor has been invited to identify the wage increases which give him this anxiety. Will he do that?

Mr. Maudling

I have been perfectly clear. He will not.

Mr. J. Griffiths

May we take it that the Government do not desire to see any voluntary agreements at all on wages?

Mr. Maudling

The right hon. Gentleman is quite aware that the answer to that question is, "No."

Mr. Shinwell

Are not we entitled to know what the Chancellor really means? Is he aware that there are some services in industry where there is no possibility at present of an increase in productivity? Are we to understand that there are to be no increases in wages despite the increase in the cost of living? Is it the policy of the Government that the standard of living is to be reduced?

Mr. Maudling

The right hon. Gentleman is exactly on the point that if there is a general increase in wages in advance of a general increase in productivity, there must be inflation. In industries where the increase in productivity is at the maximum, if the total increase in those industries is absorbed in increased wages, there will be nothing left for other people. The right hon. Gentleman is quite right.

Mr. H. Wilson

Will the right hon. Gentleman say whether he thinks that rent increases have gone further than the rise in productivity? Will he say, secondly, in view of the references of the Chancellor to the need for increasing productivity, whether it is a fact that only the Government's policy of deliberately holding down production has prevented a much bigger increase?

Mr. Maudling

The answer to the first of those supplementary questions is, "No." The answer to the second is that the Government's policy is responsible for the great strengthening of the position of the £ sterling in recent months.

Mr. Robens

Will the right hon. Gentleman help us to make a decision about this? The Chancellor of the Exchequer has indicated his anxiety about some wage increases. If he wishes the trade union movement to assist him, would not it be as well if he said which increases cause him anxiety so that we may look at them and come to a decision upon them?

Mr. Maudling

The trade union movement would resent the Chancellor expressing a view—[HON. MEMBERS: "Then why do it?"]—on individual wage settlements reached by voluntary agreement. On the other hand, the Chancellor would be entirely wrong if he did not point out to the nation that wage increases as a whole, if in advance of increased productivity, are bound to give rise to further inflation.