§ Sir W. Smithersasked the Chancellor of the Exchequer if he will set up a committee of experts with an independent chairman to recomend what proportion of the national income the country can afford to spend on social services and how the burden of cost shall be distributed between the ratepayers and the taxpayers.
§ Sir J. AndersonI am fully conscious of the importance of the matters raised in my hon. Friend's Question, but I think that his suggestion of a committee of experts over-estimates the extent to which arithmetical rules can be useful in telling us what we can afford and how we should share the cost. As my hon. Friend will realise from the papers presented with the Budget in recent years, the Government already maintains a considerable body of statistics on the national income.