BRITISH INFLATION Wage-and-price control possible

Press, Volume CXII, Issue 33061, 31 October 1972, Page 17

BRITISH INFLATION Wage-and-price control possible

(N.Z.P.A.-Reuter—Copyright)

LONDON, October 30.

The British Government is reported to be considering legal controls on wages and prices if there is a breakdown today in the resumed talks between Government, industrial, and union leaders.

At the core of the dispute is a demand by the Government and the Confederation of British Industries for a voluntary limit to wage increases, to be accepted by the Trades Union Congress. The Government has suggested that increases should be pegged for the next year to not much more than £2 a week, and that in return there should be a curb on prices. The T.U.C. leaders have insisted on a statutoiy price freeze—like the one imposed during the Second World War—as the price of recommending a wage curb; they have rejected any suggestion that a wage curb should be made legally compulsory. The C. 8.1. leaders have opposed this, declaring that a statutory freeze on the thousands of prices involved would be impractical. The three sides are due to meet again today, and the “Sunday Times” and “Sunday Telegraph” reported yesterday that the Prime Minister (Mr Heath), is prepared for swift action to bring in legal controls if the talks break down. Attempts by the previous Labour Administration to put legal limits on wage and price increases ran into heavy difficulties, and Mr Heath has repeatedly held them up to criticism. Some commentators, however, cite evidence of an apparently greater measure of

success enjoyed by President Nixon’s efforts to impose controls in the United States, and it is argued that many other countries have had price control for years. If Mr Heath does have to abandon his former view, and bring in controls, it is thought that the broad lines of his new policy may be announced in the Address from the Throne when Parliament reassembles on Tuesday.