Orders of the Day — Old Age and Widows' Pensions.

Part of the debate – in the House of Commons at on 17 June 1942.

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Photo of Mr William Kendall Mr William Kendall , Grantham

May I ask for the usual indulgence which the House affords to one who is making his first speech here? I held 82 meetings in my constituency during the Election and it was obvious that the two prime factors which at present touch people most closely are war production and old age pensions. I promised my constituents that I would do my best to represent their thoughts in regard to old age pensions to this House and therefore I support most earnestly the Motion of the right hon. Gentleman the Member for Wakefield (Mr. Greenwood). I am disappointed, however, that he has not stated an amount of money and also a time limit within which these old folks can expect to get the additional benefit. The old folk cannot to my mind, and presumably to the minds of the speakers who have gone before me, continue to pay for even the bare necessities of life with the present amount of pensions. The obvious question which arises is where the money is to come from. The hon. Member for South Croydon (Sir H. Williams) said that there is not any money, that we cannot get any more money and that the Government painted rosy pictures in which, presumably, they did not believe.

May I suggest one way in which the money for the old age pensioners can be found? We are spending £14,000,000 or more per day, seven days a week, in the war effort in order to make this country and the world better for us to live in. The costings system of the war production factories does not control the expenses of those factories. I suggest that, for the duration of the war, the factories should be nationalised and that incentive and competition should be brought into them, to save this money for the old age pensioners. Everything which is manufactured in this country to-day, whether engines, aircraft, guns or shells, is manufactured by four, five or six different firms for each object that is made. A specific type of gun, for example, is manufactured by four different manufacturers and the Ministry which represents the customer is paying four different prices for that gun. That is wrong, improper and unnecessary. I suggest that, through nationalisation and by introducing competition, the firm which is most efficient should have something to say about those firms which are less efficient and thereby save a considerable sum of money—more than enough to pay for an addition to the old age pension. If it takes 300 hours by firm A to make this gun, 320 hours by firm B, 350 hours by firm C, and so forth, I suggest that firm A should place at the disposal of the other firms under the direction of the Ministry concerned their shop lay-out, their planning, and their shop procedure, and that the Ministry should then give the other less efficient firms a time limit in which to cut down their manufacturing time and costs. If they did not accomplish this within the time limit the Ministry should take them over and use the management of the efficient firm to run the other three. I contend that enough money could be saved in the war industries alone to more than pay for an adequate increase in old age pensions which is desired by everybody in the country.