HC Deb 17 March 1970 vol 798 cc175-6
3. Mr. Sheldon

asked the Chancellor of the Exchequer if he will make a statement on the report of Professor Reddaway on selective employment tax.

Mr. Roy Jenkins

Professor Reddaway has provided a valuable report which has I think shown that many of the common criticisms of S.E.T. are misconceived. I am studying the Report and it would be wrong for me to make any further comment at this stage.

Mr. Sheldon

I wholeheartedly welcome not only this report but the kind of attitude towards taxation which gave rise to its publication. But would my right hon. Friend consider this a time to end some of the anomalies—in particular to bring the self-employed into taxation and perhaps to end the anomaly of the wholesaler versus the manufacturer with wholesale interests?

Mr. Jenkins

I have no comment to make on these issues at present.

Sir G. Nabarro

During his study of the Reddaway Report, would the Chancellor bear in mind that his colleagues have already confessed in this House that about £153 million of S.E.T. is attributed to house building and the construction industry, all of which is exceedingly inflationary in present circumstances? Would he study those figures with exceptional care?

Mr. Jenkins

My colleagues have, I think, studied certain issues, as I have. I am not sure that I regard the use of the word "confessed" as freely as the hon. Member does. Nor am I sure that he understands the economic meaning of the word "inflation".

Mr. Patrick Jenkin

Will the Chancellor acknowledge that the Reddaway Report deals with a comparatively narrow sector of the impact of selective employment tax? When considering his Budget, will he bear in mind that the report says nothing at all about invisibles, particularly tourism, where the tax has had a most damaging effect?

Mr. Jenkins

I am certainly aware that the Reddaway Report deals only with part of this field, although a most important part. I am also aware that investment earnings, including tourism, have done remarkably well during the period since S.E.T. was introduced.