HC Deb 13 June 1967 vol 748 cc292-3
32. Mr. Boyd-Carpenter

asked the Chancellor of the Exchequer why Selective Employment Tax is imposed in respect of workers employed in laundries.

Mr. Diamond

Laundries are a service and the tax is payable by service industries in general.

Mr. Boyd-Carpenter

Is not that a somewhat theoretical answer? Is not work in laundries analogous to that of work in factories? Are not laundries short of labour, and are not they also hit both by the withdrawal of the investment allowance and the price limits imposed on them? Will not he consider this question a little more from the practical angle?

Mr. Diamond

The right hon. Gentleman may know that I did receive a deputation. I have sympathy with the difficulties which this industry is facing, but I regard those difficulties as stemming mainly from the transfer to domestic laundering rather than from any other main cause.

Mr. Grimond

Is the Chief Secretary aware that in some of the underdeveloped areas, which the Government claim to be helping, service industries are the only form of major employment, and there is no alternative employment? Among those service industries laundries bulk quite largely. Will the right hon. Gentleman look at this matter again, because it is not the case that they are losing business to domestic laundering but are being put out of business by this tax?

Mr. Diamond

No, Sir. With respect, that is not an accurate analysis either of the situation for any given region or of the circumstances affecting this particular industry. In most regions there is a distribution, and I agree that it is different in some regions from others. This industry was fully investigated by the Prices and Incomes Board, and what I am saying is accurate.