Prices and Incomes Policy

HC Deb 22 May 1969 vol 784 cc638-41

4. Mr. Biffen

asked the Secretary of State for Employment and Productivity when she proposes to introduce the order activating Part II of the Prices and Incomes Act, 1966; and if she will issue a White Paper guilding the National Board for Prices and Incomes in the interpretation of the next stage of the statutory prices and incomes policy.

The Under-Secretary of State for Employment and Productivity (Mr. Roy Hattersley)

My right hon. Friend will be taking steps to re-activate Part II of the 1966 Act before the end of the year. A new White Paper also will be published during the course of the year.

Mr. Biffen

But is the hon. Gentleman aware that Part II includes Section 16, which contains the penal sanctions, and aganist which his hon. Friends below the Gangway have voted in the past and doubtless will vote again in future? In view of the failure of this policy, does it not seem that the scepticism of his hon. Friends was well founded?

Mr. Hattersley

As to the failure of the policy, if the hon. Gentleman will do the House the courtesy of reading the speech which my right hon. Friend made during the Budget debate, he will understand the number of false premises upon which his judgment is based. As to my hon. Friends below the Gangway, I am sure that they look upon the prices and incomes policy as one of the necessary factors in our continuing economic recovery. I am sure that many of them understand the necessity for its continuation.

Mr. Heffer

Since the Prime Minister said on television that other evening that he felt that his hon. Friends were possibly right on the question of east of Suez, when he was lagging behind a bit, would my hon. Friend not accept that perhaps many of us have been right about the prices and incomes policy? Is it not time to recognise that there is no need to pursue this policy any further?

Mr. Hattersley

I certainly do not draw that final conclusion. I am prepared to concede that my hon. Friend the Member for Liverpool, Walton (Mr. Heffer) was right on one of the occasions on which he has disagreed with the Government, but then, he has done it so often that it would be bound to happen at least once.

Mr. Higgins

Does the hon. Gentleman recall that, last September, his right hon. Friend told the Labour Party con- ference that the Government's policy on prices was "nothing short of miraculous"? At the end of a month in which the index has risen a deplorable 1.4 points, are we to understand that the new White Paper will contain a norm roughly four times the present one?

Mr. Hattersley

There is a later Question about the new White Paper and I must wait to reply to that.

5. Mr. Hastings

asked the Secretary of State for Employment and Productivity whether she will now make a statement on the future of the prices and incomes policy after the end of 1969.

28. Mr. David Mitchell

asked the Secretary of State for Employment and Productivity when she expects to publish her proposed White Paper on Prices and Incomes Policy.

59. Mr. Ridley

asked the Secretary of State for Employment and Productivity when she expects to publish her White Paper giving guidelines for those fixing wages, prices, dividends and rents.

Mr. Hattersley

A new White Paper will be published later this year.

Mr. Hastings

Apart from the compulsory clauses already referred to, when it comes to this White Paper, will the hon. Gentleman assure us that he will reconsider the whole position of the Prices and Incomes Board? Will he not reflect that experience so far shows that it has been tackling symptoms rather than basic causes and that the whole existence of Mr. Jones and his Board probably aggravates wage discontent rather than the reverse?

Mr. Hattersley

The hon. Member's allegations are so wide and so lacking in substantiation that they are difficult to answer. If he considered many of the Reports of the Board, particularly those dealing with general subjects like productivity, I should have thought that he would see that it has made a spectacular contribution to the reorganisation of all sorts of industrial institutions. I am sure that Part II of the Act, continuing, as it will, next year, will need the Board to work in much the same way.

Mr. Moyle

Can my hon. Friend assure us that, in the new phase of the prices and incomes policy, the Government will have adequate powers to control the possible raising by Conservative-controlled councils of council house rents?

Mr. Hattersley

I am conscious of the need, as is my right hon. Friend—as she said in the Budget debate—to keep this under review. The discussions about the future White Paper will certainly bear my hon. Friend's point in mind.

Mr. R. Carr

Does the hon. Gentleman's answer just now mean that, instead of an Order to activate Part II, we shall have new legislation?

Mr. Hattersley

It certainly does not mean that and I do not know how the right hon. Gentleman could have concluded that it did.

Mr. Manuel

He has a devious mind.

27. Mr. Higgins

asked the Secretary of State for Employment and Productivity why she has decided to reduce the statutory period over which she can delay increases in prices and incomes.

47. Mr. Speed

asked the Secretary of State for Employment and Productivity if she is now satisfied that the economic situation will allow a relaxation later this year of her statutory prices and incomes policy; and if she will make a statement.

Mr. Hattersley

I would refer the hon Members to the Budget Statement on 15th April and my right hon. Friend's speech in the debate on the Budget Resolutions on 16th April.—[Vol. 781, c. 1004–5 and c. 1176–9.]

Mr. Higgins

What improvement has there been in the economic indicators mentioned in the Budget Statement over the period when prices and incomes policy covered a longer period of restraint? What improvement has taken place which the hon. Gentleman feels justifies the policy?

Mr. Hattersley

Perhaps the first and most obvious is that referred to in the Answer by my hon. Friend to a previous Question, the 7 per cent. increase in production in manufacturing industries in the present year. This is clearly attributable to the emphasis my right hon. Friend has put on productivity arrangements.