HC Deb 27 February 1968 vol 759 cc1213-4
21. Mr. Alison

asked the Chancellor of the Exchequer by what average annual percentage figure he estimates that consumers' expenditure will rise in the period 1967–68 to 1969–70.

51. Mr. Willey

asked the Chancellor of the Exchequer what is his estimate of the rise in personal consumption in 1969.

Mr. Roy Jenkins

For a more precise estimate, the hon. and right hon. Members must await my Budget Statement, but I have already made it clear, both in this House and outside, that there will have to be very severe restraint on personal consumption over the period to which the hon. Members refer.

Mr. Alison

Can the Chancellor tell us why, since personal consumption over the decade, up to the advent of the present Government, increased at the rate of 3 per cent. per year we should now be expected to don our hair shirts because his party has come into power?

Mr. Jenkins

I am interested that the hon. Member should take a different view of the present situation than almost every commentator who normally supports the party which I believe he supports. It is not the case that consumption has increased steadily over the decade to which he referred, and it may be because it increased too fast at the end of the decade that we are finding ourselves in our present difficulties.

Mr. Orme

Is my right hon. Friend aware that many of us are concerned that the restriction of consumption measures about which he is talking will hit the working people, and the lower-paid workers, as a result of possible increases in indirect taxation? Is he aware that we would be very much opposed to this?

Mr. Jenkins

That again falls within the scope of my answer to a supplementary question, arising on the previous Question. I will consider this, like other representations.

Mr. Higgins

Since the Chancellor has already to some extent anticipated his Budget Statement by saying that he expects a 4 per cent. increase in G.N.P. there must be implicit in this figure a rate of increase in consumption. What is it?

Mr. Jenkins

The hon. Member must realise that if one gives some general estimate, as I endeavoured to do in order to help the House and the country, this does not mean that one must be asked to provide a running commentary on exactly what one's estimates are from week to week. At this stage the hon. Member must await what I have to say in my Budget Statement.