§ 5. Mr. Harold Walkerasked the Prime Minister which Minister is responsible for co-ordinating Government policy to ensure that unemployment does not reach or exceed that level which Her Majesty's Government have defined as being tolerable.
§ The Prime MinisterThis question forms an important part of the wider field of general co-ordination of Government policy for which my right hon. Friends the First Secretary of State and the Chancellor of the Exchequer are responsible with the economic Ministers concerned.
§ Mr. WalkerIs my right hon. Friend aware that, to many of his supporters, the worst social crime of any Government is to deprive a man of the right to work? Is he further aware that 600,000 people are now deprived of the right to work? Will he initiate as quickly as possible the reflationary measures necessary to give them a chance to do a decent job?
§ The Prime MinisterMy hon. Friend says that 600,000 people are deprived of the right to work but, as the House well knows, there is a certain irreducible minimum in any case, so that the figure is exaggerated. Following my statement of 20th July, I gave an estimate of what 796 it might well mean in terms of unemployment. It is now clear that the rise in unemployment has been and is levelling off and I see no reason to change the estimate and qualifications I made in July.
§ Sir C. OsborneWill the Prime Minister also look at the problem of the 500,000 workers now on short time and the approximately 500,000 who previously worked overtime and have now lost it? These are two problems additional to that of the totally unemployed.
§ The Prime MinisterYes, Sir, but I do not think that the hon. Gentleman is right in the numbers he has given, according to the latest published figures, of overtime as compared with those on short-time. I remind the House—and I know that he has pressed this many times—that if we had not taken the measures necessary to put the balance of payments right, the problem of unemployment would have been measured at a far higher figure than 600,000.
§ Mr. MendelsonWill my right hon. Friend bear in mind that if the level of investment does not increase and the Government do not take appropriate measures very soon to increase and encourage further investment, there is real reason to fear that, by the end of this year, the level of unemployment will be as high as it is now, if not higher?
§ The Prime MinisterMy hon. Friend will be aware of the measures taken since November by the Government to stimulate further investment by means of investment grants, with particular reference to development areas. I think that he will also agree that there is a fairly general impression that a lot of the gloom that was felt—genuinely felt—during the November period is now disappearing and is being replaced by a more optimistic feeling about employment and production, and this, of course, will have its effect both on investment and on unemployment.
§ Mr. HeathDoes the Prime Minister's Answer imply that we are now in the post-redeployment period? What is the evidence of redeployment in manufacturing industry since last July?
§ The Prime MinisterI do not imply that we are in the post-redeployment 797 period. In July, I said—as the right hon. Gentleman obviously recalls—that, after redeployment, the range of figures that I mentioned would not, I thought, be unacceptable to the country. The redeployment is not complete and the unemployment figures are, as I have said, now levelling off.