Prices

HC Deb 21 June 1973 vol 858 cc851-6

9. Mr. McNamara

asked the Minister of Agriculture, Fisheries and Food how many applications for increases in the price of manufactured foodstuffs have been allowed by the Price Commission since the beginning of phase 2.

10. Mr. Eadie

asked the Minister of Agriculture, Fisheries and Food how many applications the Price Commission has had for increases in manufactured food since its inception to the nearest available date.

The Parliamentary Secretary to the Ministry of Agriculture, Fisheries and Food (Mrs. Peggy Fenner)

The information requested by hon. Members is a matter for the Price Commission, which makes announcements about its work from time to time.

Mr. McNamara

As the President of the United States had a Watergate on food price increases and introduced a freeze on them, and as we have had a flood gate of food price increases, may I ask the hon. Lady why, instead of passing the buck to the Price Commission, the Government do not introduce a freeze on all food prices?

Mrs. Fenner

The hon. Gentleman is perfectly well aware that Watergate and food prices have nothing in common. The Price Commission is publishing information for pre-notifying firms about all price increases that it accepts as being within the limits set by the code. I am aware that the Labour Party has been trying to make something of this point—[Interruption.] I said "has been trying to make something of this point"—and that its motion was rejected by the House on 7th May.

Mr. Scott-Hopkins

Does my hon. Friend agree that the world prices of the raw materials that food manufacturers are using have risen enormously over the last eight months and that, therefore, the margin that food manufacturers have been allowed has been eroded, leaving little profit? Does she also agree that there is a great need for further investment if our food processing industry is to continue to lead the world, particularly in Europe?

Mrs. Fenner

My hon. Friend is perfectly right. The Opposition must be well aware, from the actions being taken in countries throughout the world, that the pressure on the world supply of food is now such that world food prices affect the markets in every country.

Mr. Eadie

The hon. Lady must be finding it very difficult and embarrassing to hide behind the Price Commission. Is she aware that from the housewife's point of view the credibility of the Price Commission is collapsing before her very eyes? Our postbags certainly indicate that this is the situation. Does the hon. Lady agree that rather than the Price Commission becoming a watchdog, in the eyes of the community it is becoming more like a lapdog?

Mrs. Fenner

The Price Commission is operating in accordance with the code approved by Parliament. All permissions given are strictly within that code.

Mr. Geoffrey Finsberg

Will my hon. Friend remind me whether, when there was a so-called freeze under the Labour Government, food prices were exempt from any kind of control?

Mrs. Fenner

The Labour Government made no pretence that they could impose a freeze on fresh foods and on seasonal factors. Although we have been through a seasonal period, when the seasonal food factor has risen by 30 per cent., in the last winter of the Labour Government the seasonal food factor went up, in the same period by 28 per cent.

Mr. Buchan

I am sure the hon. Lady will agree that it is a bit much to make that assertion when the increase in prices under this Government during the last three years has been twice that of the last three years of the Labour Government.

May we revert to the Price Commission? The British housewife is concerned whether it is effective. Is it not the case that, as it operates only in the margin of profit, if shops were overcharging before they are allowed to continue to overcharge now? Is it not also the case that the Price Commission, because of its narrow remit, refuses to investigate any cases of overcharging in the shops? If she says "No", I should point out that I have a letter from the Price Commission to say so.

Mrs. Fenner

I must accept what the hon. Gentleman says about the letter from the Price Commission, but shops were not permitted to overcharge during the standstill period. The hon. Gentleman will no doubt have seen, in the Press release issued yesterday by the Price Commission, that there were 116 approved price increases up to 15th June, that of that figure, 27 were in the food sector, and that of those, 13 increases amounted to less than 6 per cent.

11. Mr. Hardy

asked the Minister of Agriculture, Fisheries and Food what change in the general level of prices has occurred in the last three years; and by what amount the expenditure on food of the average family has risen since June 1970.

Mrs. Fenner

Information is not yet available for the full three years since June 1970. However, between the second quarter of 1970 and the first quarter of 1973 the General Index of Retail Prices rose by 23.6 per cent. and average weekly household expenditure on food as recorded in the National Food Survey by 23.2 per cent.

Mr. Hardy

Is the hon. Lady aware that yesterday the House received confirmation of the terrible increase in the price of housing land and houses, and that today we are given no encouragement by her answer, since it confirms the fearful and entirely harmful increase in the price of food? Is the hon. Lady aware that this was not what was promised in June 1970? Would the hon. Lady care to offer a forecast or make a promise about the movement of food prices during the next 12 months, or does she no longer feel responsible?

Mrs. Fenner

I should not care to offer a forecast, for obvious reasons. As I said in reply to the first Question, a good deal of the increase over the last few months is due to world market prices, and I cannot make a forecast on those. It is interesting to note that the hon. Gentleman referred to other matters that are outside my control. The increase in expenditure on food represents the sum of 49p per person per week, and that should be related to the increase in wages over the same period.

Mr. Farr

One deplores the rise in food prices that has undoubtedly occurred in recent years, but will my hon. Friend tell the House how the Government's actions have enabled those in real need and necessity—pensioners, the sick and the disabled—to cope with the way in which these food prices have risen?

Mrs. Fenner

First, we initiated the annual review of pensions. As that was previously done biennially, the new system is an improvement and means that we are able annually to consider increases that affect particularly the most vulnerable in our community, namely, the disabled and the elderly. Secondly, by means of the family income supplement and the up-rating of benefits we have been able to ensure that rising prices do not bear too hardly upon those in our community who are most vulnerable.

As my right hon. Friend said earlier this week, elderly folk have always had difficulty in making their pensions go round, and Meals on Wheels have been provided for many years in order to improve the dietary needs of elderly folk who live alone.

Mr. Ewing

May I take the hon. Lady up on the question of world food prices and raw materials? Will she undertake to investigate the position in those countries from which we get our raw materials and then tell the House how it is that the cost of living there is not increasing at the same rapid rate as it is here?

Mrs. Fenner

It is increasing at the same rate in those countries as it is here. This is a general world pattern.

14. Mr. Skinner

asked the Minister of Agriculture, Fisheries and Food what are the latest available percentage figures for the increase in food prices since 18th June 1970.

15. Mr. Thomas Cox

asked the Minister of Agriculture, Fisheries and Food what has been the percentage increase in the price of food since June 1970.

26. Mr. John Morris

asked the Minister of Agriculture, Fisheries and Food how far food prices have risen since June 1970.

Mrs. Fenner

Between 16th June 1970 and 17th April 1973, the latest date for which information is available, the food index rose by 34.1 per cent.

Mr. Skinner

Does not the Minister agree that these figures show that, while the face of capitalism might be unacceptable to the Leader of her party, the body of capitalism is getting fatter and more bloated every day? Are not these figures the living reason why old-age pensioners are scratching around in the supermarkets, looking for scraps? What on earth was the Price Commission head appointed for, at £15,000 a year—to put prices up?

Mrs. Fenner

In real terms, old-age pensioners are better off now than they were under the last Government. As I quoted in answer to a previous question the percentage increase represents 42p per week to the pensioner; the pension for a single person has so far increased by £1.75 per week, and by October it will have increased by 55 per cent. since this Government took office.

Mr. Ralph Howell

Is my hon. Friend aware that, since 1970, overall expenditure on food has risen by 16.5 per cent., overall expenditure on pensions and benefits by 35 per cent. and personal savings by 38 per cent.? Does not this prove the hypocrisy of the charges of Labour Members? Will my hon. Friend stop apologising for something that we have no reason to apologise for?

Mrs. Fenner

I thank my hon. Friend. We should not apologise for ensuring that the old-age pension has risen by 55 per cent. since we took office. Hon. Members opposite will be aware that the United Kingdom is highly dependent on world food supplies and is thus vulnerable when those supplies come under pressure, as has happened recently. That is a straight quote from the Glasgow Herald, of Monday 11th June.

Mr. Cox

In view of those shameful figures, can the hon. Lady give any indication of the effect that the latest bumper bundle of price increases, which were approved last week, will have? The figures that she has given today show that under her Government the food bill for the average family with two children has risen by over £2 a week. Will she now ask the Prime Minister whether, at long last, he will redeem the pledge that won him the last election—to cut prices at a stroke?

Mrs. Fenner

The hon. Member refers to the food bill for the average family. He should also, in fairness, have referred to the average wage increase over the last three years. Perhaps he would like to listen to the figures of the wage increases—[HON. MEMBERS: "No."] No, I know that that he would not, but he is going to hear them just the same. For a farm worker, the wage increase has been £6.35 a week and for a National Health Service ancillary hospital worker it has been £5.73. Measured against that is a rise in the cost of food of 49p per person per week.

Mr. Buchan

The people are getting sick of two things—[Laughter.]—and they are both in front of us. We are sick of the increase in prices, which is now double that of the entire period of the Labour Government. Is the hon. Lady not aware that it is time that the Minister of Agriculture or the Prime Minister himself stood up to deal with these questions instead of leaving them to the hon. Lady? The Prime Minister, who made the pledge, should now either apologise to the British people or resign.