§ 79. Mr. Osborneasked the President of the Board of Trade what is the anticipated annual saving by the removal of subsidies and clothiers' rebate on utility clothes; and what was the annual retail turnover on which this was previously granted.
§ Mr. BottomleyThe subsidies on utility cotton and wool cloth were estimated to cost £24,625,000, during the current financial year. The estimated cost of the final payments falling into the financial year 1948–49 is £2 million. The subsidies relate to utility cloth, but most of this cloth is sold by retail as utility garments. In the absence of the kind of information which a census of distribution would disclose, I cannot make any reliable estimate of the annual retail turnover of utility clothing.