HC Deb 23 June 1964 vol 697 cc216-7
23. Mr. Whitlock

asked the Chancellor of the Exchequer what is the total amount of financial assistance provided in the form of subsidies, grants, and loans to private industry and agriculture since 31st March, 1951; and what sums have been returned to Her Majesty's Government in capital or interest.

Mr. Alan Green

I am afraid that this information is not available in full. I am circulating in the OFFICIAL REPORT the total annual figures which have been published in the Financial Secretary's Memorandum on the Estimates for payments of financial assistance from 1958–59 onwards, and for receipts of capital and interest from 1961–62 onwards. The figures of receipts for the years 1958–59 to 1960–61 are not immediately available, but I will write to the hon. Gentleman and let him have them as soon as I can.

Mr. Whitlock

Is not it a fact that something like £4,500 million in subsidy have been handed over to private enterprise in the last 13 years and that something like half that sum has been handed over since the last General Election? In view of the fact that this staggering sum of national assistance benefit has been handed over to private enterprise without any kind of control, does not the hon. Gentleman think it is time that the State had a voice in the affairs of concerns which are so heavily subsidised by taxpayer's money?

Mr. Green

The hon. Member no doubt will like to know that the vast bulk of the money provided in this way has gone to agriculture. I have not heard any suggestions from hon. and right hon. Members opposite that agriculture should not be supported, and supported strongly. Perhaps the hon. Member would care to have a look at the figures before he comments so acidly on them.

Mr. Prior

Is my hon. Friend not aware that these sums which go to agriculture provide Britain with the cheapest food in Western Europe, give considerable help to our balance of payments position, and offer great social benefits to the country as a whole? Are we to understand from the supplementary question of the hon. Member for Nottingham, North (Mr. Whitlock) that the Labour Party would do away with these subsidies?

Mr. W. Hamilton

In view of the Government's declared policy that State financial assistance should go only to those who need it, what steps do they intend to take to ensure that before farmers claim their subsidies they definitely need them? [AN HON. MEMBER: "Means test."] Of course, a means test. Is the Financial Secretary aware that this means test is applied to all National Assistance recipients, that it is applied to all recipients of welfare foods and all recipients of council house subsidies? Why should it stop there instead of being spread much further?

Mr. Green

I admire the hon. Member's capacity to compare unlike with unlike.

The figures are as follows:—

£m.
Payments Receipts
1958–59 … … 262 —
1959–60 … … 301 —
1960–61 … … 358 —
1961–62 … … 465 20
1962–63 … … 380 28
1963–64 … … 444 26
1964–65 … … 437 32