UNEMPLOYED IN BRITAIN.

New Zealand Herald, Volume LIX, Issue 18211, 3 October 1922, Page 7

UNEMPLOYED IN BRITAIN.

WORK BY MUNICIPALITIES.

GRANTS FROM GOVERNMENT,

HELP IN RECOVERING TRADE By Telecranb—Prees Association—Copyrislit A. and N.Z. LONDON, Oct. 1.

The Minister for Labour, Dr. T. J. MacNainara, speaking at Nottingham, announced that the Government was finding an extra £10,000,000 to help the municipalities to give work to unemployed, and had also sanctioned a proposal that the credits for £21,000,000 to help traders recover foreign markets should * continue about another year. It was also guaranteeing loans to the extent of £25,000,000 for the electrification of railways, docks, and other works. It proposed to raise this amount to £50,000,000. He added that since the slump the Government and municipalities had provided from £40,000,000 to £50,000,000 for work for the unemployed, and would spend a further £10,000,000 during the winter. He said that under the employment insurance £95,000,000 were available for the coming winter and spring. In these difficult times the British people were making a splendid effort to get trade and finance back to normal.

Preparations for the relief of unemployment during the winter months, October to April, have been occupying the attention of a committee of the British Cabinet and of departmental officers' for some months. The plans are generally based on the arrangements which proved successful last winter. Chief among these are the Government-aided local authorities' relief schemes, the Ministry of Transport's assisted road-making and improvement schemes, and the trade facilities grants.

Last, winter the first-named method provided direct labour throughout the country for 100,000 men during seven months, and was probably the indirect means of making work for half as many more. So large was the response by local authorities from all parts of England, Scotland, and Wales to iast year's circular asking for local schemes providinp; employment that as early as June 1 last a similar circular was sent out by the Unemployment Grants Committee .of which Viscount St. Davids if the chairman. By the end of August nearly 2700 schemes had been submitted by 500 local authorities, involving a capital outlay of nearly £20,000,009.

These schemes have been classified by the Unemployment Grants Committee, and passed to the Cabinet Unemployment Committee for their consideration, and the Cabinet has been advised to offer financial assistance on the same linos as last year, when it was decided to help approved schemes up to a total capital outlay of £10.000.000. It is proposed to render assistance as follows: —

(a) For . revenue-producing schemes grants equal to 50 per cent, of the interest on loans raised by local authorities for a period of not less than ten years, in respect of expenditure on approved schemes will be paid by the State for a period of five years; (b) For non-revenue-producing schemes grants equal to 65 per cent, of the interest, and sinking fund charges on loa-is raised to meet expenditure on approved schemes, will be paid by the State for a period of one-half the term of the loans, subject to a maximum of 15 years. Last year the capital cost of the schemes approved totalled about £1.7,000,000, and the Government offer was augmented in consequence. As this year's schemes, if approved, will mean an equally large expenditure, it is quite likely that the £10,000,000 limit will again be advanced. Should this assumption be borne out by subsequent results, the cost of this method of assistance to the country for this year's schemes is estimated to bo about £500,000 for the first year, £850,000 a year for the following four years, nearly £700,000 a year for the next five years, and £230,000 for each of the last five years, the great decrease in this latter period being duo to the cessation of the ten-year grants toward revenue-producing schemes. The assistance given by the Ministry of Transport is entirelv confined to road improvement works. The Ministry's help is made by means of grants or loans to the value of 50 per cent, of the cost of the approved schemes, which are earned out under the strict supervision of the Ministry's inspectors. The mam object in the expenditure of this money is to use it in a way that will mean the greatest absorption of labour, which must account for not less than half the total cost of the work.