§ Sir W. Brassasked the Parliamentary Secretary to the Ministry of Works whether he can give any information on the steps his Ministry is taking to con- 878W centrate medium sized and smaller builders into groups; and whether the matter has at any time been discussed with the industry?
§ Mr. HicksYes, Sir. My Noble Friend has given consideration to this matter and, in agreement with my right hon. Friend the Minister of Labour and National Service and with the approval of the industry with whom the matter has been fully discussed, has initiated a vountary scheme for the pooling of a portion of the building industry dealing with maintenance and small works. The scheme is being applied in agreement with my right hon. Friend the Minister of Health, to the carrying out of major repairs to bomb-damaged houses for local authorities which the Government have decided must be accelerated. The contracts are being placed with groups of builders to be formed voluntarily through the regional works and buildings emergency organisations of the Ministry of Works. The scheme is in general limited to firms employing up to 25 operatives and to local labour over 51 years of age not required on urgent priority works in the Government's building programme. Firms which desire to co-operate are being formed into groups of about 10 firms each and their immobile labour is being pooled and made available to each group as required for the carrying out of work covered by the scheme. The Essential Work Order will be applied to all work covered in this way, carrying the guaranteed week. So far as possible, operatives are being kept with and under the supervision of their old employers and each co-operating firm in a group will receive its share of overheads and profits based on the hours worked by its operatives, provided that the principal of the cooperating firm is carrying out duties of a managerial or supervisory nature on the work in question. The scheme is designed to assist the better preservation of this portion of the industry so that such firms may be in a position to undertake their share in the programme of reconstruction after the war. It is anticipated that within its present scope the scheme will affect about 2,000 firms and will, as well as achieving the above object, secure by co-ordination and organisation, that the vital repairs of bomb-damaged houses will be carried through on a larger scale and with real economy of labour, materials, time and cost.