§ 28. Mr. McKayasked the Chancellor of the Exchequer what are the fixed and other capital assets connected with the companies and corporations trading in the United Kingdom as mentioned in Table 3 of the National Income and Expenditure for the year 1960; how much these capital assets have risen in value since 1954; what return the trading profit gives in this combined capital as a percentage; by what 25W amount dividends and interest payments have increased in this period; and what has been the rise of wages, excluding salaries, from 1954 to 1960.
§ Sir E. BoyleInformation on the capital employed by companies and public corporations as a whole is not available. Summaries of the balance sheets of public companies engaged in manufacturing, distribution and certain other industries are compiled and published by the Board of Trade, however, and corresponding figures are available in the balance sheets published by the main public corporations. These two groups together account for about two-thirds of the total trading profits and surpluses shown in Table 3 of the National Income Blue Book. Their published balance sheets showed total net assets of about £19,400 million in 1960, compared with about £11,800 million in 1954. These figures are, of course, book values and are not based on any uniform method of valuation. They include some assets held abroad and there have been some changes in coverage during the period in the case of the public companies. The gross trading profits of these groups rose by £1,000 million between 1954 and 1960 but showed a yield of only just over 15 per cent. of net assets in 1960, compared with about 16½ per cent. in 1954. The gross dividend and interest payments of all companies and corporations included in Table 3 of the Blue Book increased from £962 million in 1954 to £1,745 million in 1960. Total wages rose from £6,160 million in 1954 to £8,630 million in 1960; separate figures for the wages paid by companies and public corporations are not available.