§ Mr. John Hallasked the Minister of Housing and Local Government and Minister for Welsh Affairs how many building operatives, and what percentage 60W of the total building labour force, were employed by local authorities in 1951 and 1959, respectively.
§ Mr. BrookeIn 1951, local authorities in Great Britain employed 162,000 building operatives, constituting 11.4 per cent. of the total building labour force. The corresponding figures for 1959 were 183,000 and 12.8 per cent., respectively. The increase in the 1959 percentage is however misleading because the count of the total labour force included in 1951, but did not include in 1959, persons employed by firms and other bodies whose main activity was not construction. On new house-building local authorities in England and Wales employed 17,500 operatives in 1951 and 13,700 in 1959, representing 8.2 per cent. and 5.2 per cent., respectively, of the total labour force employed on such work.