§ 76. Mr. Harrisonasked the President of the Board of Trade if he will give figures to show to what extent, over a representative range of commodities, he has been successful in increasing actual and relative supplies of utility articles, as compared with non-utility.
§ Mr. BottomleyI give below the information requested regarding certain clothing and household textiles. As regards utility furniture, very detailed figures of actual supplies are published in the
— Total Supplies for home consumption (a) Percentage of these supplies in Utility scheme (1) (2) million Woven cloth for clothing:— sq. yds. Cotton and Linen January-February, 1949 … 56.03 69 January-February, 1948 … 64.72 76 Rayon and Nylon January-February, 1949 … 36.38 70 January-February, 1948 … 37.37 71 Wool January-March, 1949 … 62.26 73 January-March, 1948 … 55.80 73 Household textiles:— Thousands Towels January-February, 1949 … 4,144 81 January-February, 1948 … 4,420 83 Sheets January-February, 1949 … 1,240 87 January-February, 1948 … 1,551 91 Cotton blankets January-February, 1949 … 1,297 90 January-February, 1948 … 1,118 84 Wool blankets January-March, 1949 … 1,283 97 January-March, 1948 … 1,270 95 million pairs Footwear (other than rubber) January-March, 1949 … 34.0 93 January-March, 1948 … 31.6 51 £ million Hosiery (b) January-February, 1949 … 14?8 90 January-February, 1948 … 11.7 88 '000 articles Corsets and brassieres (c) October, 1948-January, 1949 8,973 80 October, 1947-January, 1948 … 9,553 90 Mattresses December, 1948-February, 1949 … 662 83 December, 1947-February, 1948 … 715 73 (a) Including imports where these are significant. (b) Includes outerwear, underwear, socks and stockings, and garments made up from knitted fabric in the hosiery industry. (c) Surgical corsets, belts and brassieres have been omitted.