Allocation of Raw Materials to Industries in Development Areas Memorandum by the Minister of Labour and National Service

Moreover, none of the Minister of Food's arguments holds good against the course my Department originally advocated, which is to reduce somewhat the allocations of materials of firms in areas of labour shortage and increase those of firms in unemploy- ment areas. Many of the firms in the industries in question are, in fact, in areas of acute shortage of labour and accommodation, such as London, Reading, Watford, Slough and Leicester, and it appears to me that to leave firms in areas of unemployment short of materials in order to give them to firms in areas of labour shortage leaves the Government open to strong criticism from the point of View of failure to achieve maximum production and the co-ordinated use of our national resources.