Orders of the Day — Budget Proposals and Economic Situation

Part of the debate – in the House of Commons at 12:00 am on 18 April 1956.

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Photo of Miss Irene Ward Miss Irene Ward , Tynemouth 12:00, 18 April 1956

I do not want to enter the controversy between the hon. Member for Ince (Mr. T. Brown) and my hon. and gallant Friend the Member for Ilford, South (Squadron Leader Cooper) concerning coal. I am bound to say that in the old days before the war the country got its coal far too cheaply and that there was a great deal to be said on the side of the miners. The question that really puzzles the country concerns the productive capacity of the mining industry and production in the "bull" week just before Christmas.

Coming from Tyneside and having been Member of Parliament for Wall-send for 14 years, with a large number of mining constituents with whom I was on very good terms, although, I regret to say, they did not vote for me, I know something about the mining industry. I know full well that under no circumstances could one expect miners to maintain the "bull" week output week after week. That is clear to anyone with a knowledge of mining. At the same time, however, there is generally a great discrepancy between the "bull" week output and the weekly output of the industry. That is the question that the country wants answered, and I put it because it is important.

There is another point I should like to take up with the hon. Member for Ince. I agree that on vesting day the National Coal Board acquired a large number of unproductive pits which were in course of being worked out. I cannot, however, let it go unchallenged that vesting day saw the National Coal Board taking over nothing but junk in the shape of mines.

Although I have a fair knowledge of the mining industry in Northumberland and Durham, I know something of it also in the M.A.D., and I should like to say a word of support for one of the country's great collieries, the Bolsover colliery. I am proud to be able to point out that even today the Meco-Moore power loaders developed by the Bolsover Company under private enterprise are still largely used by the National Coal Board after nearly ten years of nationalisation.

I suggest that we might now call off this controversy, for each side has put its point of view. Our main object is to get a happy and contented mining industry and to obtain the largest productive capacity in the interest of the country. As I have already said, while I grant that before the war there were good, bad, and indifferent miners, there were also good, bad, and indifferent colliery owners. That puts the position fairly clearly.

I want to make my small contribution to the debate with as little rancour as possible although, after quite a long time in the House of Commons, I feel more frustrated and disappointed by this Budget than perhaps by any other Budget. I will give my view on the Budget quite clearly. Before making my criticisms, however, I have one or two things to say in complimenting my right hon. Friend the Chancellor of the Exchequer.

Like many other hon. Members, I am very glad that the Government have accepted the recommendations of the Second Report of the Millard Tucker Committee. That is a great step forward. It was long overdue, and we are all very glad. But I was also pleased to read in the Press today that my views concerning small fixed income groups and people nearing retirement age who have not been able to provide for their old age are shared by Sir James Millard Tucker, who considers that the Chancellor of the Exchequer has not paid due attention to providing for them. I am pleased that my hon. Friend the Member for Langstone (Mr. Stevens) referred to what he called the late entrants into the Millard Tucker Scheme. In viewing the future stability of the country, it is of tremendous importance to give to every man and woman an opportunity of providing, by their own efforts, possibly assisted by the Government, for a good pension so that they may have a happy and well deserved retirement.

There are two other points upon which I congratulate my right hon. Friend. I am pleased that he has at last accepted excavation and tunnelling as processes which can attract certain allowances, although unfortunately, as so often happens in this rather difficult world, the concession has come somewhat too late for those very enterprising and productive companies which have already created the new enterprises which match up with modern development. I am referring here to Smiths Docks in my own constituency, a company which has a reputation for ship repairing second to none in the world. That company has set its house in order; it has built its new docks in order to meet the repairing requirements of the new modern tankers. I am afraid they will have missed the value of this concession. However, I try not to carp unduly; I am pleased that those who undertake new enterprises in the future will receive this assistance from the Treasury.

I am very glad also to hear about the reduction in Stamp Duty for owner-occupiers. That is a step towards helping people to acquire their own homes, and, in accordance with my view of life, I like people to be in a position to buy and own their own houses. I therefore think that that is a valuable, though small, concession, and I welcome it.

As I understand it, my right hon. Friend has laid great emphasis, quite rightly, as the whole Committee agrees, on the need for savings. He outlined a variety of schemes which he hopes will add to the total reserve of savings in this country. I am bound to point out that, in all the suggestions which were either explicit or implicit in his Budget statement, he implied that people had the money to save.

I can quite see that a large number of people in this country will enjoy the excitement of the Premium Bonds; but, after all, they must have money to be able to play with them. No one can take a £1 share in Premium Bonds without interest unless he has money to put into it; nor can he increase his purchase of National Savings certificates unless he has the money to purchase them, or buy a better issue of Defence Bonds unless he has the money available. In general, of course, all the suggestions put forward by the Chancellor did assume, quite rightly, that a very large section of the community has money to spare. I wish my right hon. Friend all success in his imaginative schemes.

I come now to what has caused me very great regret and disappointment. Indeed, I felt so angry yesterday that it was perhaps a good thing I was not fortunate in catching your eye, Sir Charles. I am referring to the plight of the small fixed income groups. On this subject of lack of reserves, it is said that we gave—as indeed we did—our strength, our manpower and our money in order to win the last war. That, of course, is true; but what my right hon. Friend has not seemed to appreciate is that those reserves which were available for us to draw upon in this way had to a very large extent been created by the thrift of those who are today counted among those receiving small fixed incomes.

If I were to write to the Prime Minister or to the Chancellor of the Exchequer, or if the Financial Secretary to the Treasury or the Economic Secretary were to answer my speech tonight, I would not mind having a bet in Premium Bonds that the statement made from the Front Bench would be that the greatest service we can do to help the small fixed income groups is to stop inflation. Of course, that is a truism. Nevertheless, I do want my right hon. Friend the Chancellor, and those associated with him, to accept this, that if inflation were stopped tomorrow, very, very few of these people to whom I am referring—those on small fixed incomes of pre-war vintage—would benefit at all.

Of course, the general increase in the cost of living presumably would cease, though it is not going to happen for some considerable time; but the fact is that the cost of living has steadily risen since the beginning of the war, and these people have used up all their resources and are now in a very serious financial plight. Anything done towards stopping inflation will bring about an increase in the standard of living for those who are working today, but those poor, unfortunate people who are now living on small fixed incomes will receive virtually no amelioration of their hardships at all.

I should like to read one letter, from among the many hundreds I have received, which puts the case very clearly. I hope that members of my own Government who are connected with forming financial policy will not close their ears to what this letter states, because sometimes I would like to take a wooden hammer and hit their heads good and hard. This is what the letter says: I decided to write to you partly to thank you, and partly because the facts of my own case may help you as representative of thousands of others. I should like to point out that I am not complaining because I have a small income, but because of the unimaginative way the Government has treated a class of people who have in the past in the main been its loyal supporters, but who, like myself, are beginning to feel a deep sense of frustration and impatience. That is what I feel as a Member of Parliament, but I really do not know whether the Government are aware of it. I have had an expensive education, for which my father paid, at a boarding-school and later at Newnham. Yet, as a retired schoolmistress, I now have a pension of £271 gross. Yet, because I retired in 1954, I cannot claim any increase under the new pensions plan. I have had to abandon smoking—probably an advantage—and now my book club, because of increased postal charges, which also affect my exchange of books from Boots Library. All books have to come here by post. She writes from very near the Border. A telephone is almost a necessity in this remote spot, though the charges are fast becoming prohibitive. Rates are terrific, and urgent house repairs swallow up the rest of my small income. Even a slight reduction of Income Tax for people similarly situated would, I am sure, be an enormous relief. With many apologies for trespassing on your valuable time.