§ 14. Mr. Tilneyasked the Minister of Power whether he will give a general direction to the Electricity Council that area boards should not advertise in future until they are sure of being able to meet the demands of their customers.
§ The Minister of Power (Mr. Richard Wood)No, Sir. I do not think that the percentage of the Board's gross turnover, spent on promotional advertising is excessive, and the aim of much of it is to make better use of installed plant during off-peak periods.
§ Mr. TilneyMay I ask my right hon. Friend to confirm that in the last financial year more than £2 million was spent on advertising? Many people, especially those on Merseyside, consider this to be in the nature of a false prospectus. Will my right hon. Friend consider spending a proportion of that money on sending out questionnaires to householders to find out exactly what they have in the way of electrical appliances in their homes so that bad estimations may remain less bad in future?
§ Mr. WoodThe figure of £2 million is the total spent on advertising electricity. The sum spent on promotional advertising, which I think is what my hon. Friend has in mind, is £850,000, or about 0.1 per cent. of the whole turnover. As regards the second part of my hon. Friend's supplementary question, I will ask the Electricity Council to look into this and make a report to me.