fabian tract 414 
towards a radical agenda: 
comments on Labourls 
programme 
contents 1 introduction 1 
2 
3 
running the economy 
industrial relations 
3 
7 
4 redistribution of wealth 11 
5 
6 
7 
8 
9 
10 
11 
common ownershipemployment and the regions 
urban policies 
science policy 
education policy 
social policythe law and human rights 
13 
17 
27 
37 
441 
49 
57 


Jt J 7 


this pamphlet, like all publications of the Fabian Societv 
represents not the collective view of the Society but only the 
view of the individuals who prepared it. .The responsibility of 
the Society is limited to approving publications it issues 
as worthy of consideration within the Labour movement. 
Fabian Society, 11 Dartmouth Street, London SW1 H 9BN. 
October 1972 ISBN 7163 0414 7 


1. introduction 
Peter Hall, Chairman Executive Committee, 1971-72 

Towards a Radical Agenda: Comments 
on Labour's Programme is the Fabian 
Society's contribution to the debate at the 
1972 Labour Party conference, on the 
policy which the Party will put to the 
nation at the next general election. It 
results from only six months of intensive 
work by a series of specially commissioned 
task forces. The membership of these 
groups is not identified in this pamphlet 
as they included many individuals who, 
either because they were public servants 
or for other good reasons, had to preserveanonymity. 

Each of the task forces worked independently. 
Only at the end did their Chairmen 
meet to discuss the document as a whole ; 
and then, as could be expected, strong 
reservations and disagreements were 
expressed regarding certain sections and 
recommendations. It must be stronglystressed therefore that in the nature of the 
exercise, none of the members of these 
task forces-numbering well over one 
hundred-could be expected to subscribe 
to every part of this document. Indeed, in 
several cases, not all members of a 
single group necessarily support all that 
group's recommendations. Like all Fabian 
documents since the formation of the 
Society in 1884, this then does not represent 
a Fabian Society policy ; for the 
Society has no collective policy. It represents 
merely the views of individual 
Fabians, which are presented here as 
worthy of consideration by the Labour 
movement. 

The policy areas that are covered are 
deliberately selective. Time and resources 
did not permit an across the board treatment. 
The document deals only with the 
field of home policy. It is intended that 
a separate pamphlet, dealing with foreign 
and commonwealth matters, will be published 
under the auspices of the International 
and Commonwealth Bureau 
Committee of the Society in a few months' 
time. 

Within the field of home policy, the 
task forces have been set up so as to 
concentrate on the issues that seemed most 
important for a future Labour government. 
And within each of these areas, 

again, the approach has been highlyselective: to try to concentrate on the key 
issues. 

The original hope and intention was that 
the main policy proposals in the document 
should be costed and compared with 
forecasts of the state of the economy, so 
that a fully integrated Counterbudgetcould be set out. That hope has not yetbeen fulfilled at this early stage ; as yetthe policy proposals are too generalised to 
permit it. But it is worth stressing here 
one of the principal conclusions of 
the Economic task force is that on 
reasonable expectations about the state of 
the economy on a Labour return to office 
in or about 1974, to permit even a modest 
increase in personal consumption for 
average income households would mean 
that little was left for early increases in 
public expenditure. This is a conservative 
estimate, because some considerable slack 
may exist in the economy even at that 
time. But if it proved true, some of the 
principal policy proposals in the Agenda 
could not be implemented at once. 

That goes equally for the Labour Party'sown official proposals. T awards a radical 
Agenda has been produced in parallel with 
these proposals, which are set out in the 
Party's paper for the 1972 conference,
Labour's Programme for Britain. Manytask force members were also active 
participants on the Party study groups 
whose work culminated in this paper.
Towards the end of their work, all task 
forces were invited to contribute comments 
on the Party's proposals, and these 
are incorporated in the various sections 
of this pamphlet ; hence the subtitle,
Comments on Labour's Programme. It is 
hoped that these constructive criticisms 
will prove useful to the Party in the 
debate that will take place at conference. 

Naturally, in a report produced on this 
short time scale, the presentation here is a 
highly summary one. The task forces have 
sketched the outlines of the main problem 
areas and have suggested some solutions. 
These solutions now need working out in 
more detail. Nearly all the task forces 
have already determined to stay in being 
after publication of this pamphlet. Over 


the course of the next year, 1972-73, they 
will follow up their main conclusions, 
either as a group or individually. Theywill present further evidence to back uptheir conclusions, and will develop their 
policy proposals in greater detail, in a 
series of Fabian pamphlets. The objective, 
finally, is to have a set of coherent and 
well worked out policies ready for consideration 
by the next Labour government: 
a true Radical Agenda. This pamphlet is 
a first step on that road. 

•( 
., 


2. running the economy 
economic task force report 


The management of the economy cannot 
be confined behind the closed doors of 
the Treasury. If it is seen merely as the 
Chancellor doing battle with economic 
forces by manipulating the levels of public 
expenditure and rates of taxation, economic 
management is too uncertain and 
unstable a process to provide the strongand consistent framework needed for the 
social and economic life of the nation. 
The management of the economy lies in 
the hands not only of Ministers, but also 
of wage negotiators, investing industrialists 
and hard pressed housewives. They should 
be brought fully into the business of 
running the economy. The wage negotiators 
should play their part in determining 
public expenditure and taxation and in 
tackling unemployment and inflation, and 
not kept in the outer courtyard just to be 
lectured on wage increases. Industrialists 
must be asked to look ahead to future 
changes in the pattern of demand and 
employment, and not left to respondbelatedly to full or empty order books. 
The housewife must be recruited and 
equipped to fight effectively in the war 
against inflation, and encouraged to 
secure the social expenditure needed on 
housing, schools, health and pensions for 
her family. 

So it is right that the Labour Party should 
talk to the TUC to thrash out economic 
policy. Until those talks have reached a 
conclusion the statement on economic 
policy in Labour's Programme for Britain 
will be incomplete. 

A close relationship will be needed 
between a Labour government and industry, 
so a framework such as that putforward in Labour's Programme for 
Britain is needed for detailed industrial 
policy. 

prices and incomes 

Effective restraint on prices with guidelines 
for fair prices and the strict control 
of key prices, implying subsidies for food, 
rents and fares as proposed in Labour's 
Programme for Britain, with local means 
of enforcement will help to make sure 
that prices do not accelerate inflation. 

In a climate of social justice it will be less 
difficult, though it will never be easy, to 
face those questions of priorities in the 
demands on resources which are as much 
a test of a Labour government as of any 
other government. 

Much current economic debate, and much 
press comment on Labour's Programme 
for Britain suggests that incomes policyis the central issue in economic policy.
This partly reflects the real concern felt by 
all sections of the community at the high 
rate of inflation, which has accelerated 
under the Tories and which has been made 
to bear more heavily upon the less well 
off by regressive changes in taxation and 
social services. And it is partly opponents 
of the Labour Party rubbing salt into the 
wounds the Labour government suffered 
in its efforts to carry out its prices and 
incomes policy. 

But it is not clear that incomes policy 
should be accorded this lonely eminence 
in economic policy. Full employment with 
a higher pressure of demand and hence a 
higher growth rate, a flexible exchange 
rate, and a prices policy have their parts 
to play in a balanced economic policy. 
Furthermore there are important structural 
factors, including regional policy, 
technological change, and manpowerpolicies to combat the obsolesence of 
skills which should play a central part. 
The quality of life, whether reflected in 
the distribution of wealth and income, or 
in the use of those resources for more 
satisfying and important purposes, is not 
encouraged by a policy which concentrates 
attention solely on the total of wageincomes. Finally, with the total of wageincomes in relation to real resources nevertheless 
an important factor in the economy, 
a non-inflationary balance may not 
be well served politically and psychologically 
by constantly harping on incomes 
policy. Hypochondria can become real. 

incomes policy and collective 
bargaining 

An incomes policy must take account of 
the institutional realities of trade unions 
and the collective bargaining process.
Trade unions exist to increase the wages 


and improve the conditions of their members. 
This purpose cannot be stood on its 
head by asking unions to restrain wage 
increases. Unions have no police powers 
over their members. But the trade union 
member or official can take as long and 
broad a view as anyone else where it i 
necessary to weigh the short term against 
the long term, or the benefit of the individual 
against that of the group. Yet the 
advantage has to be shown and felt. 

Trade union organisation and activity is 
as necessary for the smooth running of 
industry in today's circumstances of rapidsocial and technological change as ever it 
has been. We reject notions of trade 
unionism which seek to change its 
essential character. 

The Tory government, conscious of the 
strength of trade unions in wage bargaining, 
has sought to reduce the power and 
effectiveness of trade unions by the 
Industrial Relations Act. But the folly of 
using the law in the day to day conduct 
of industrial relations has already bPen 
amply demonstrated. Looking at the level 
and distribution of incomes in Britain 
today a sounder conclusion would be that 
wage bargaining needs strengthening, and 
extending to encompass prices. production 
and employment which can otherwise 
whittle away the value of wage increases. 
Economists, and others more conscious of 
the behaviour of economic aggregatesthan of the realities of collective bargaining, 
have sugge ted removing wage determination 
from the field of negotiation in 
the factory, firm or industry. Proposalshave been made for national job evaluation 
schemes under the control of a 
national body with trade union, management 
and independent members. Another 
suggestion is that the trade unions should 
be handed a national cake and left to 
divide it harmoniously between themselves. 
A variant is that employers paying 
increases above a national norm should 
pay a heavy tax proportional to the excess 
of the wage increase above the norm , 
thus increasing the threat to the security 
of employment of over pushful workers. 

Such propo als run foul of the realities of 
collective bargaining and its fundamental 

nature. Job evaluation is not an objectivemechanical process. With the most careful 
use of work measurement, factor grading, 
bench marks, comparison methods, and 
proposal and appeals procedure a jobevaluation scheme can provide a useful 
framework for collective bargaining in a 
factory. The principles can be applied in 
the different factories of a multi-plantfirm, with considerable variations from 
plant to plant. Going beyond the firm 
only the most general ideas can be transferred 
and their application is far from 
uniform and automatic. Job evaluation 
offers a useful framework for collective 
bargaining: it is not a substitute for it. 
This also is the view of the Industrial 
Relations task force in the section that 
follows. 

Leaving trade unions to divide the national 
cake between them seems a clever way of 
putting the ball in the unions court. But it 
ignores the interaction between wages and 
other production costs and profits, and 
between costs, prices and the growth or 
decline of demand for the particular product. 
These are balances that cannot be 
struck solely at the national level. 

There is no escaping the need for a sound 
collective bargaining system distributed 
between the different levels of industryaccording to the needs of the situation. 
The pattern of collective bargaining needs 
constant revision, and it can get badly out 
of gear. But it cannot be eliminated. 

With this background the economists 
should point to the effect of wage increases 
in the complex of interacting factors in 
the economy. Considering only short term 
first order effects, prices are affected by 
wage costs per unit of output, and import 
prices. Wage incomes, resulting from wage 
rates, hours worked, and employment are 
affected by price increases through the use 
made of the cost of living in collective 
bargaining. The rate of increase of wageincomes are also reduced by rising unemployment, 
but since the loss of outputimplied by unemployment pushes up costs 
per unit of output, unemployment has no 
restraining effect on price increases. Faster 
growth of demand and output does reduce 
unemployment, and conver ely the output 


s 


possible in the short term is limited by the 
labour available at full employment. None 
of these effects are precise. Many take 
time to show. None of them work on 
their own. And in every case there are 
secondary and longer term effects some 
of which are important in the long run. 

Economists argue for wage restraint for 
three distinct but related reasons: first in 
order to restrain price inflation ; second 
in the distribution of real resources to 
allow sufficient for other demands, namely 
public expenditure, investment, and the 
balance of payments ; and thirdly to allow 
for income redistribution and the protection 
of those less effectively covered 
by collective bargaining or market power. 

All of these are important considerations, 
both in the longer term objectives of a 
Labour government and in the short term 
position a Labour government will find 
on taking office and subsequently. There 
is always a short term judgment to be 
made. It is misleading to suppose that 
having sorted out the mess a government 
inherits on entering office it can expect the 
changing force of circumstances to permit 
short term policies to conform exactly to 
long term objectives. The effectiveness 
with which long term objectives are 
attained depends on the judgment and 
skill of a government in using its limited 
room for manoeuvre in the short term 
consistently in the pursuit of underlyingobjectives. 

resources, public spending 
and personal consumption 

Labour's Programme for Britain and the 
proposals in this pamphlet make heavydemands on resources and on publicexpenditure in particular. With the limited 
resources available more on publicexpenditure means less on personalexpenditure. 

The following table shows for different 

growth rates of gross national product and 
of public expenditure, approximate growth 
rates of consumer expenditure (or real 
incomes after tax), assuming the demands 
of investment and the balance of payments 
are met. 

It is clear that at low growth rates of GNP 
high growth rates of public expenditure 
leave nothing for increased consumer 
expenditure. Wage increases will be completely 
eaten up by price increases. A 
Labour government will have to judge the 
balance to aim at. We suggest that if there 
is a prospect of low growth it is not 
practicable to set growth rates of publicexpenditure which would reduce the rate 
of growth of real incomes after tax below 
2 per cent per annum for the averageworker. The attempt to set higher growth 
rates of public expenditure will cause 
economic crisis in one way or another, in 
accelerating inflation or a balance of 
payments crisis leading to rising unemployment. 


The problem is further complicated in that 
the machinery for the control of publicexpenditure is very cumbersome and slow 
acting. Public expenditure is committed 
a long time in advance, and committed in 
real terms with the effect that rising prices 
are met out of the government's bottomless 
purse. This leaves the consumer, and 
indirectly investment and the balance of 
payments, to take the ups and downs of 
the economy, and the effect of priceinflation. The management of the economy 
would be more fair and effective if 
government expenditure of which the 
exact timing is not critical was organised 
in such a way that the actual expenditure 
of real resources could be advanced or 
delayed at short notice. In the not so long 
run this would reduce the stop-go of 
public expenditure as much as that of the 
rest of the economy. It can be done, 
particularly on capital expenditure, with 
a proper system of preparation pools, and 

GROWTH RATES: PER CENT PER ANNUM 
GNP 2 3 4 5 
public expenditure 0 4 8 0 4 8 0 4 8 0 4 8 
consumer expenditure 2.6 1.4 0.2 3.9 2.7 1.5 5.2 4.4 2.8 6.5 5.3 4.1 


in time it would result in a higher and not 
a lower volume of public expenditure. 

In 1972 there now exists a substantial 
margin of spare capacity. It should be 
possible for GNP to grow at 4 or 5 per cent 
per annum for the next four or five years. 
It is impossible to tell how much slack 
there will be in the economy at the time 
of the election. It seems likely that in two 
years time Tory window-dressing with an 
election boom will have placed heavy 
demands on immediately available resources 
from imports and consumer 
industries without having reduced unemployment 
or increased investment 
sufficiently to take up the capacity of 
industry as a whole or of the development 
areas. In these circumstances the objective 
of a Labour government should be the 
continued reduction of unemploymentthrough sustained growth, much of which 
will have to go initially to investment,
including public sector investment, and 
exports, with further action if necessary, 
on the exchange rate. 

The prospects are therefore that even with 
present spare capacity, by the time of the 
election any short term bonanza for consumer 
expenditure and public expenditure 
now possible will have been exhausted. 
and their growth rates will have to fail 
back to rates sustainable in the long term. 
It would then be undesirable to create 
conditions which would make any kind 
of voluntary incomes policy impossible by 
pre-empting all resources for increased 
public expenditure, allowing none for 
increases in real incomes after tax. 

We therefore suggest that planned increases 
of total public expenditure for the 
first one or two years should be kept to 
around 6 per cent ; that this need not 
include public expenditure on the unused 
resources that will be available from the 
development areas ; and that contingencyplans should be made for further quickchanges of public expenditure, up or 
down, if it is found that the economy 
permits or requires them. 

We believe that faster growth of the 
economy in directions desired by the 
people as a whole, with greater social 

justice and a higher quality of life is 
attainable if we realise what resources are 
available and use them well. 

In the context of such an economic policy 
a voluntary incomes policy has its part to 
play. We support the seven points 
such a policy made recently by Mr. Wilson 
(Sunday Times, 6 August 1972), namely 
unemployment has no part to play ; aJ 
statutory freeze is not the answer ; the 
policy must be fair including action on 
prices, rents, school meals and fares with 
no provocative pay increases for toppeople ; threshold agreements can be useful 
; the lower paid should get at least the 
same cash increase as the better paid ; an 
independent body is needed ; and public 
sector employees must not be treated 
worse than anyone else by the Govern


ment. 

Finally, we stress again, as Mr. Wilson did , 
that this can only be a part of economic 
policy, and that the process of " economic 
management " should be brought into the 
Iight of day, for a start in d · 
between the government, the TUC and the 
car about the distribution of resources 
between different public and private 
purposes. 

Industrial relations, income and wealth 
distribution, taxes, regional policy and 
other aspects of economic policy are 
discussed in later sections of this pamphlet. 


3. industrial relations 
industrial relations task force report 

On a number of aspects we have reached 
conclusions which are summarised below. 
On others we believe we have identified 
the main problems which still require to 
be resolved and in later discussions on 
these points we shall have regard to the 
current discussions between the Party and 
rue, since an agreement between the Partyand the TUC is, in our view, a prerequisite 
for a successful industrial relations policy 
by the next Labour government. In this 
respect we welcome the TUC/LabourParty liaison committee's recent joint 
statement on Industrial relations and the 
expressed intention that the work of this 
body should continue. We very much 
hope that such a committee will become 
a permanency and, in particular, would 
continue to operate actively during the 
period of office of future Labour governments. 


our main approach 

We are convinced that a completely new 
approach from that of the present government 
is needed. Every judgment of the 
NIRC confirms the views of the Labour 
movement about the destructive effect of 
the Tory Industrial Relations Act on 
healthy industrial relations, and we are 
united in our determination to see it 
repealed. A simple repeal is not, however, 
enough. Something must be put in its 
place. This is not only because a simple 
repeal puts us back to the bad old days 
before the 1871 Trade Unions Act, when 
any industrial dispute could bring the 
trade union concerned before a Court of 
Law. It is because the inequalities of 
power, status, experience, opportunity and 
rewards in industry are so deep seated and 
intractable that they will need a combined 
onslaught by both a strong trade union 
movement and a strong Labour government 
to remove them. What we need is a 
new perspective. We stand for developing 
effective conciliation and arbitration 
machinery, extending the coverage of 
collective bargaining both to those industries 
which are covered by wages councils 
(some of which are only a pale shadow of 
collective bargaining) and to those still 
more unfortunate industries which have 
no collective bargaining at all. We also 

want the reform of procedure agreements 
which have become obsolete or irrelevant 
with the passage of time. 

But we do not consider that these should 
be the only planks of a Labour industrial 
relations programme. They will be ineffective 
unless we succeed in the majoraim of devising practical policies which . 
will assist the worker to increase not only 
his rewards, but also his status, satisfaction, 
security, safety and opportunity at 
work. 

the working environment 

Decisions in both private and publicindustry are taken by a few, but they can 
ruin the lives of tens of thousands. The 
effect of this is intensified by the growth 
in multi-national companies, a point to 
which we return later. Although the 
effects of decisions to close down entire 
enterprises are the most dramatic, decisions 
about marketing, investment and 
deployment of resources, may, in the long 
term, have even more serious effects. 

Along with the disparity between the 
power of the enterprise and the powerlessness 
of the individual worker, exists disparity 
between different classes of employees 
: managerial, supervisory and 
operative, white collar and blue collar. 
Some differentials in pay are inevitable 
especially where they are related to skill 
and responsibility, but there are other 
differentials in security of employment,
hours of work, holidays, sick pay and 
pensions which cry aloud for treatment. 
So do the damp, dirty and dangerousconditions in which all too many manual 
workers have to operate. In many cases 
the basic pay of manual workers represents 
only a modest proportion of total 
earnings ; the elements of shift work 
and overtime and bonus can be withdrawn 
at short notice and, in any case, are 
generally ignored in calculation of annual 
holidays and redundancy payments. 

In the problems listed above what needs 
doing is clear and much can be achieved 
by making the best known current practices 
available to all. Our concern, how



ever, is not just about decent conditions 
and minimum rights ; there is the glaring 
contrast between society's treatment of 
people before and after they enter working 
life. On the one hand we rightly spend a 
growing proportion of our resources on 
educating our people. On the other, when 
these people leave school and go into 

. industry, they are all too often expected 
to be mechanics without minds of their 
own, in jobs which give no scope for the 
development and use of skill, for the 
continuing growth and development of the 
individual and for the exercise of control 
over his or her environment. In the way 
that work is now organised, control is 
often remote, not only in major matters 
of policy, but in the setting of targets,
decisions about quality and workingmethods, sometimes down to the minutest 
regulation of physical movements. In 
thousands of jobs there is nothing further 
to be learned after the first few days.
Many managers nowadays have the benefit 
of training and development well into their 
50s. For other kinds of workers it is 
assumed that people reach a peak in tt1eir 
20s, stay level for a time and the only 
possible change in direction is downwards. 
This largely derives from the kind of 
work they are required to do and becomes 
a self-fulfilling prophecy. 

It is these disparities which poison industrial 
relations. We should not be surprised 
at dissatisfaction with the industrial system 
taking the form of absenteeism and high 
turnover and, in many cases, unofficial 
action of various kinds. Why should 
workers who are expected to be cogs in a 
machine show any great commitment to 
managerial objectives and why should 
their children be prepared to enter such a 
system? 

We take great care and spend large resources 
on design, products and processes.
The design of tasks and work roles goes 
by the board because people are supposed 
to be flexible and adapt to a wide range 
of situations and indeed they are flexible, 
and they do adapt, but at a cost. Every 
adjustment that a worker makes to a 
restrictive work situation has a price tag, 
either for him as an individual or for the 
society around him, or for his children 

who look at their parents and decide to 
opt out. 

strategy for change 

As individuals, workers are powerless 
against their employers but collectively as 
members of a trade union their position 
is strengthened. Radical change requires 
strong trade unions on the shop-andjoffice-floor in the districts and regions 
and nationally. Equally, it requires 3./ 
strong Labour Government willing andj 
able to co-operate with unions in some~ 
cases, and move ahead of them in others. 

About 10 million workers in this country 
are trade unionists and the degree of 
organisation is much higher within the~ 
public sector than in private industry. But 
the TUC unions to which they belong set 
the pay and basic working conditions for 
five-sixths of the total number of 
employees, either directly through voluntary 
collective agreements or indirectlythrough their membership of WagesCouncils. There remain 4 million employees, 
mainly in clerical and commercial 
jobs in private industry who are covered 
by pay structures imposed by their 
employers who, up to the present, have 
refused to recognise or to negotiate with 
trade unions. The most extreme example 
(but not a rare one) is for the employerwho gives full rights to unions catering 
for his manual workers (even to the extent 
of a closed shop) but who resists in every 
possible way according recognition to 
unions speaking on behalf of his non-
manual workers. Increasingly these people 
look to trade unions but often, fearing to 
appear too militant, join an employerinfluenced " house union," taking advantage 
of the Industrial Relations Act to 
oust bona fide unions. 

Another important factor determining the 
overall degree of trade union recognition 
in an industry is the size of the undertakings. 
Where only a handful of workers 
are employed effective organisationbecomes very much more difficult and 
this not only applies to the distributive 
trades, hotels, and catering, and clothing 
and other wages councils industries but is 


also true, for example, of parts of the 
engineering industry. While, understand-
ably, unions oppose the existing punitive 
legislation it must be recognised that the 
problems referred to above may only be 
resolved by way of legal support for 
trade unions and legal protection for their 
members. 
This can only mean the unqualified legal 
right to belong to a union, and the legal 
right to negotiate where the union is 
representative or where this is refused, 
the right to arbitration. We also need legal 
provisions against unfair dismissal, with 
special penalties for dismissal for union 
activity. But this does not in itself solve 
the problem of organising the unorganisedlow pay industries. This will take far more 
time and money than is now available to 
the trade union movement, and the 
task force will be considering how to 
resolve this problem. 
extending collective 
bargaining 
Collective bargaining not only directs 
inevitable conflict into constructive chan-
but it also provides a means throughwhich workers can influence managerial 
decision making. Unions increasingly
·ealise that holidays and pensions are as 
mportant as pay and conditions affecting 
~arnings ; it is equally important for them 
.o become involved in discussions on the 
1rrangement of work, manpower planningmd other aspects of decision making 
~hich were formerly the prerogative of 
nanagement. 
\!though a legal basis for reform is 
equired, collective bargaining also needs 
he support of an agency. The question is 
vhether it should be essentially govern-
nental, in other words the Commission 
or Industrial Relations before the Indus-
rial Relations Act destroyed its standing 
vith the unions, or completely indepen-
lent. Clearly a government connected 
gency can have access to information and 
xpertise which can be of enormous value, 
1ut the price for that information is 
overnment direction. Many of the most 
·riginal and constructive ideas for reform 1 f industrial relations in the past 
9 
have originated from non-governmentalsources. Some value highly the right of an 
agency to initiate reform and not simplyto await government instructions. On the 
whole we think the agency should be 
independently administered. 
incomes policy and industrial 
relations 
Although our remit was to report on 
industrial relations rather than incomes 
policy; it would be unrealistic to ignore 
the effect of incomes policy on industrial 
relations. We reject any concept of 
incomes policy which takes the form of 
persuading union leaders to persuade their 
members to accept a lower standard of 
living in order to assist the Government 
in correcting the balance of payments.
Many of the present difficulties in 
industrial relations arise from an under-
standable backlash against such a policy, 
which, however well intentioned, sacrificed 
long term interests to short term expedi-
ency. We are on balance in favour of an 
incomes policy provided it is as effective 
in the sphere of rent, interest and profit, 
as it is in wages and salaries, but recognise 
two major difficulties for which solutions 
must be found. The first is an inherent 
conflict between an incomes policy and 
conciliation and independent arbitration. 
The second is the danger that unions 
which ignore any collective decision on 
incomes policy may benefit their members 
more than those which honour them. 
We have endorsed the concept of an 
independent service for conciliation and 
arbitration. We do not dispute that 
individual conciliation officers in the 
Department of Employment have done 
their best, but their brief is bound to be 
to comply with the incomes and industrial 
relations policy of the Government of the 
day and many years of this have destroyed 
their independent role. The only successful 
experiment in recent times was the year 
following June 1969 in which the TUC 
played a major part in resolving and 
avoiding disputes. A service paid for bythe State, but directed by a body including 
the TUC, the CBI, the nationalised industries 
and independents, could make a majorcontribution to the reduction in both the 
number and the length of disputes. 
also true, for example, of parts of the 
engineering industry. While, understand-
ably, unions oppose the existing punitive 
legislation it must be recognised that the 
problems referred to above may only be 
resolved by way of legal support for 
trade unions and legal protection for their 
members. 
This can only mean the unqualified legal 
right to belong to a union, and the legal 
right to negotiate where the union is 
representative or where this is refused, 
the right to arbitration. We also need legal 
provisions against unfair dismissal, with 
special penalties for dismissal for union 
activity. But this does not in itself solve 
the problem of organising the unorganisedlow pay industries. This will take far more 
time and money than is now available to 
the trade union movement, and the 
task force will be considering how to 
resolve this problem. 
extending collective 
bargaining 
Collective bargaining not only directs 
inevitable conflict into constructive chan-
but it also provides a means throughwhich workers can influence managerial 
decision making. Unions increasingly
·ealise that holidays and pensions are as 
mportant as pay and conditions affecting 
~arnings ; it is equally important for them 
.o become involved in discussions on the 
1rrangement of work, manpower planningmd other aspects of decision making 
~hich were formerly the prerogative of 
nanagement. 
\!though a legal basis for reform is 
equired, collective bargaining also needs 
he support of an agency. The question is 
vhether it should be essentially govern-
nental, in other words the Commission 
or Industrial Relations before the Indus-
rial Relations Act destroyed its standing 
vith the unions, or completely indepen-
lent. Clearly a government connected 
gency can have access to information and 
xpertise which can be of enormous value, 
1ut the price for that information is 
overnment direction. Many of the most 
·riginal and constructive ideas for reform 1 f industrial relations in the past 
9 
have originated from non-governmentalsources. Some value highly the right of an 
agency to initiate reform and not simplyto await government instructions. On the 
whole we think the agency should be 
independently administered. 
incomes policy and industrial 
relations 
Although our remit was to report on 
industrial relations rather than incomes 
policy; it would be unrealistic to ignore 
the effect of incomes policy on industrial 
relations. We reject any concept of 
incomes policy which takes the form of 
persuading union leaders to persuade their 
members to accept a lower standard of 
living in order to assist the Government 
in correcting the balance of payments.
Many of the present difficulties in 
industrial relations arise from an under-
standable backlash against such a policy, 
which, however well intentioned, sacrificed 
long term interests to short term expedi-
ency. We are on balance in favour of an 
incomes policy provided it is as effective 
in the sphere of rent, interest and profit, 
as it is in wages and salaries, but recognise 
two major difficulties for which solutions 
must be found. The first is an inherent 
conflict between an incomes policy and 
conciliation and independent arbitration. 
The second is the danger that unions 
which ignore any collective decision on 
incomes policy may benefit their members 
more than those which honour them. 
We have endorsed the concept of an 
independent service for conciliation and 
arbitration. We do not dispute that 
individual conciliation officers in the 
Department of Employment have done 
their best, but their brief is bound to be 
to comply with the incomes and industrial 
relations policy of the Government of the 
day and many years of this have destroyed 
their independent role. The only successful 
experiment in recent times was the year 
following June 1969 in which the TUC 
played a major part in resolving and 
avoiding disputes. A service paid for bythe State, but directed by a body including 
the TUC, the CBI, the nationalised industries 
and independents, could make a majorcontribution to the reduction in both the 
number and the length of disputes. 

10 
Much the same applies to arbitration. 
Although it is true that in certain circum-
stances employers, or unions, or both, 
may oppose arbitration, in our experiencewhat unions normally oppose is arbitra-
tion which they believe has been brain-
washed in the direction of governmentpolicy. We believe that only arbitration 
which is seen to be independent under the 
auspices of the conciliation service we 
have described can restore the credibilityand acceptibility of arbitration. 
Multi-national companies pose a specialproblem. Recently multi-national com-
panies have been faced with more real 
international trade union action than 
previously, but governments either within 
a common group as EEC may become, 
through the ILO or through ad hoc ar-
rangements, have to take the responsibilityof ensuring that multi-national companies 
do not frustrate constructive industrial 
relations policy by being able to play off 
one government against another. Perhaps 
the government, through the TUC, mightmake an approach to the ICFTU or to [he 
individual trade union secretariats to 
help solve these problems. 
participation and control 
Like incomes policy, this issue cannot be 
ignored in any discussion of industrial re-
lations policy but it is a subject in its own 
right. The control that people can exercise 
over their work situation comes throughrepresentative institutions, through consul-
tation and power sharing at local level and 
through the way they actually spend their 
time. Some of us believe the experiment 
of worker directors should be extended, 
other are les sure. (The Common Owner-
ship ta k force, in a later section, supportthe idea but want to ee more participation 
at the level of the individual shop). We all 
want uch experiments to continue, 
although we differ in the optimism with 
which we regard them. We agree however, 
that what is required i experiment in 
different methods of workers participation 
as Labour's Programme for Britain recom-
mends, including the re-de ign of actual 
work ituations. As far as the re-de ign of 
work i concerned, the biggest gap in thi 
field now is not in research but in experi-
mentation and we propose a protectedexperiment scheme under which approved 
experiments will receive government 
support, for training, start-up allowances, 
equipment grants, tax allowances, and so 
on, and some fallback insurance in case 
of failure. We also want training in these 
areas made available for negotiators. 
the legal framework we need 
We reject absolutely the argument that th 
trade union movement should be "out-
laws" and we believe it to be contrary to 
the main stream of trade union thinkin 
for over 100 years. Equally we reject th 
view accepted by the present Tory govern-
ment that the courts should be the main 
agency for the reform of industrial 
relations. The next Labour governmentiwill have to repeal the Industrial Rela-
tions Act and replace it by one setting u~ 
an agency for the reform of industriaU 
relations, and independent conciliation an 
arbitration service, and powers to deaU 
with companies directed from outside th 
country which seem to evade the ne 
policy on industrial relations. It will 
guarantee the right to belong to a union, 
provide for action against unfair dismissal, 
and provide a legal basis for recognitionand compulsory arbitration where th 
company fails to negotiate. The wagecouncils require to be replaced by volun-
tary bodies underpinned by a return of 
section 8 of the 1959 Terms and Condi-
tions of Employment Act and the Fair 
Wages Resolution requires drastic re· 
drafting. The provision of information 
for trade union negotiators should be 
mandatory as should joining safety com-
mittees in establishments over a certain 
size, while the Factory Inspectorate should 
be substantially increased in size. Th 
Office , Shops and Railway Premises Act 
and the Fire Prevention Act require re 
view. Redundancy payments should b 
based on earnings rather than basic rates 
Company law must be changed to mak 
some form of worker participation in 
management possible, and the Govern-
ment must have the legal power to provide 
financial support for experiments in the 
field of job satisfaction. 
10 
Much the same applies to arbitration. 
Although it is true that in certain circum-
stances employers, or unions, or both, 
may oppose arbitration, in our experiencewhat unions normally oppose is arbitra-
tion which they believe has been brain-
washed in the direction of governmentpolicy. We believe that only arbitration 
which is seen to be independent under the 
auspices of the conciliation service we 
have described can restore the credibilityand acceptibility of arbitration. 
Multi-national companies pose a specialproblem. Recently multi-national com-
panies have been faced with more real 
international trade union action than 
previously, but governments either within 
a common group as EEC may become, 
through the ILO or through ad hoc ar-
rangements, have to take the responsibilityof ensuring that multi-national companies 
do not frustrate constructive industrial 
relations policy by being able to play off 
one government against another. Perhaps 
the government, through the TUC, mightmake an approach to the ICFTU or to [he 
individual trade union secretariats to 
help solve these problems. 
participation and control 
Like incomes policy, this issue cannot be 
ignored in any discussion of industrial re-
lations policy but it is a subject in its own 
right. The control that people can exercise 
over their work situation comes throughrepresentative institutions, through consul-
tation and power sharing at local level and 
through the way they actually spend their 
time. Some of us believe the experiment 
of worker directors should be extended, 
other are les sure. (The Common Owner-
ship ta k force, in a later section, supportthe idea but want to ee more participation 
at the level of the individual shop). We all 
want uch experiments to continue, 
although we differ in the optimism with 
which we regard them. We agree however, 
that what is required i experiment in 
different methods of workers participation 
as Labour's Programme for Britain recom-
mends, including the re-de ign of actual 
work ituations. As far as the re-de ign of 
work i concerned, the biggest gap in thi 
field now is not in research but in experi-
mentation and we propose a protectedexperiment scheme under which approved 
experiments will receive government 
support, for training, start-up allowances, 
equipment grants, tax allowances, and so 
on, and some fallback insurance in case 
of failure. We also want training in these 
areas made available for negotiators. 
the legal framework we need 
We reject absolutely the argument that th 
trade union movement should be "out-
laws" and we believe it to be contrary to 
the main stream of trade union thinkin 
for over 100 years. Equally we reject th 
view accepted by the present Tory govern-
ment that the courts should be the main 
agency for the reform of industrial 
relations. The next Labour governmentiwill have to repeal the Industrial Rela-
tions Act and replace it by one setting u~ 
an agency for the reform of industriaU 
relations, and independent conciliation an 
arbitration service, and powers to deaU 
with companies directed from outside th 
country which seem to evade the ne 
policy on industrial relations. It will 
guarantee the right to belong to a union, 
provide for action against unfair dismissal, 
and provide a legal basis for recognitionand compulsory arbitration where th 
company fails to negotiate. The wagecouncils require to be replaced by volun-
tary bodies underpinned by a return of 
section 8 of the 1959 Terms and Condi-
tions of Employment Act and the Fair 
Wages Resolution requires drastic re· 
drafting. The provision of information 
for trade union negotiators should be 
mandatory as should joining safety com-
mittees in establishments over a certain 
size, while the Factory Inspectorate should 
be substantially increased in size. Th 
Office , Shops and Railway Premises Act 
and the Fire Prevention Act require re 
view. Redundancy payments should b 
based on earnings rather than basic rates 
Company law must be changed to mak 
some form of worker participation in 
management possible, and the Govern-
ment must have the legal power to provide 
financial support for experiments in the 
field of job satisfaction. 

4. redistribution of wealth 
redistribution of wealth task force report 

Industrial relations will be immeasurably 
easier, and any incomes policy will be 
more securely based on mutual acceptance,
if a Labour government can be seen to be 
making a radical and effective attack on 
the present inequitable distribution of 
wealth. Labour's Programme for Britain 
contains proposals on taxation which, 
though only briefly outlined, seem at last 
to represent a genuine attempt at real 
redistribution. The two main elements in 
·the development of inequitable property 
distribution are recognised-inheritanceand the tendency of already large fortunes 
to grow disproportionately because their 
owners cannot spend them on consumptionand because of the exceptional financial 
opportunities which they provide. As 
Labour's Programme for Britain says, 
estate duty is not effective in preventingthe transfer of inherited wealth and a gifts 
transfer tax is required as an alternative. 

is not stated whether estate duty would 
be abolished but there does not seem to be 
any point in retaining it as well as a 
gifts transfer tax unless it would provide 
useful administrative check. The wealth 
tax involves considerable valuation problems, 
but it should be administrativelypracticable if it is only applied to large 
estates, of which there are relatively few. 
[t is not stated how it would be related 
to the existing capital gains tax, but it 
would seem fair to avoid double taxation 
by levying it on net wealth-that is, after 
:apital gains tax has been paid. An alter'
lative would be to have a lower exemption 
irnit for a wealth tax and to abolish the 
:apital gains tax. This might well be 
'Dreferable on administrative grounds as 
.he capital gains tax imposes a heavyLdministrative burden. A wealth tax would 
1ave the important incidental advantage 
.hat it would provide much information 
Lt present lacking about the distribution 
'Jf ownership of various kinds of property. 

rhe section in Labour's Programme for 
fJritain on capital accumulation seems to 
·equire a lot more thinking out. Ploughed-
Jack profits are indeed a major source 
>f industrial investment and they result 
n capital gains arising from the prospects1f greater profits in the future as result 
>f the increased investment. Given the 
'•resent distribution of wealth-including 

industrial and financial shares-this tends 
to maintain the concentration of wealth in 
relatively few hands (though there is 
sacrifice of immediate income by shareholders 
since profits are only partially 
distributed). 

The proposal is made that the state should 
acquire equity holdings in companies in 
exchange for government bonds. There 
seems some doubt as to whether this 
would contribute much to lessening inequality 
in the distribution of wealth 
because the bonds would have to carry a 
much higher rate of interest to allow for 
the lack of growth prospects (at present 
rates about 8-9 per cent instead of about 
4-5 per cent or less on equity shares). The 
difference in return would either have to 
be made up from taxation or, when there 
was a sufficiently large share portfolio 
which had begun to reap the benefits of 
capital gains, its whole proceeds would go 
on paying bond interest (though in the 
very long run capital growth might outweigh 
interest charges). Meanwhile the 
ownership of bonds would be just as 
concentrated in a few hands as that of the 
shares it replaced. 

What seems to be missing in this section 
is the realisation that the fundamental 
point is the transfer of the ownership of 
capital from private to public hands, 
rather than the replacement of one type of 
privately-owned security for another. This 
means that the acquisition of shares has 
got to be financed by taxation which 
bears more heavily on the rich. The 
obvious solution is to use the proceeds of 
the new taxes on capital, designed to bringabout redistribution of wealth, on public 
capital expenditure-including the 
purchase of equity shares in privatecompanies (which will then become either 
nationalised or mixed companies) either 
directly or through the state holding company-
rather than on current budgetary 
expenditure, the effect of which could be 
to reduce the funds available for investment, 
already low in this country bycomparison with other advanced countries. 
Of the other two proposals made, the 
investment of national superannuationfund reserves in equities (while it could 
be advantageous on other grounds) will 


not in itself necessarily contribute to the 
reduction of inequality of ownership. 
The proposal for a national workers' 
capital fund, to be created by companies 
being required to transfer to the fund in 
the form of equity shares a percentage of 
their wage-bill each year, would probably 
mean that the cost of this contribution 
would be divided between profits (both 
distributed and retained) and wages, in 
proportions which would vary according 
to the circumstances of each company. 
There would be a wider distribution of 
equity share ownership in the companies 
concerned, but the long-term effects of 
paying for it could be such as to leave 
the distribution of wealth practically unchanged, 
as other forms of investment-
such as financial or property enterprises 
to which the scheme could not be applied 
-would be preferred by investors. It does 
not appear that the scheme could be 
universally applied, as it could not be used 
in small companies, public utilities, or 
many non-industrial occupations, and its 
usefulness as a means of securing greater 
equality in wealth distribution seems very 

doubtful. 


5. common ownership 
common ownership task force report 

Public ownership has in recent years been 
discussed mainly in terms of economic 
efficiency and industrial policy, and relatively 
little attention has been paid to the 
wider issues of its effect on the general 
structure and values of society. Yet the 
belief in public ownership as an instrument 
of fundamental social change is a 
basic factor colouring political attitudes 
to some extent or other throughout the 
Labour movement. It is time, therefore, 
for a realistic and up to date appraisal of 
the past performance and future possibilities 
of public, and also co-operative, 
ownership in this wider context. 

the distribution of income 
and wealth 

One of the objectives of common ownership 
has always been to achieve a more 
equal distribution of income and wealth. 
But although the case for nationalisation 
originally arose as much as anything out 
of revulsion at the gross inequalities endemic 
in the private ownership of industry, 
nationalisation appears to have 
had little or no effect on the distribution 
of income or wealth over the last 25 years.
As far as the distribution of wealth is con:
erned, the immediate effect of nationalisation 
was mainly to compel owners of 
shares in financially precarious basic injustries 
to exchange them for fixed inter-
st government stock. In so far as inflaion 
has substantially eroded the real 
;alue of the stock issued in compensation, 
1ationalisation might be said to have had 
.orne levelling effect on the ownership of 
·apital. On the other hand, in many cases 
he difficulties experienced by the indusries 
concerned in making a profit after 
1ationalisation suggests that the share-
IOlders were lucky to have been relieved 
1f their shares when they were. On bat


nee the effects on the ownership of capial 
of the Fabian policy of nationalisation 
fitb compensation can probably be rearded 
as negligible. 

'be effects on the distribution of income 

more difficult to determine. At first 
here too nationalisation seems to 
made little impact. All shades of 

on seem to consider that wages and 
in nationalised industries should 

be determined by reference to the norm 
of the private sector on grounds both of 
equity and expediency. As far as wagesare concerned, there is little evidence of 
greater equality in income distribution 
within nationalised as compared with private 
industries ; although there is a 
somewhat lower proportion of people at 
the lowest wage levels in the nationalised 
industries. Again salary levels are believed 
to be broadly comparable. But generally 
speaking nationalisation, and the associated 
high degree of unionisation, has produced 
more rational and equitable wage 
and salary structures. To the man in the 
street, the Chairman of a nationalised industry 
with his £20,000 or £25,000 a year 
may seem to fall into the same category 
as his counterpart in private industry 
getting twice his salary. But while top 
managers in the nationalised industries 
may wield more power than their private 
industrial counterparts, the fact is that 
they are in a radically different economic 
class from the owner of even a relatively 
small firm. 

Public ownership may not of itself lead to 
greater equality, but it can be argued that 
a substantial public sector is an essential 
pre-condition for a movement towards 
equality. It is true that we have not for a 
long time heard any complaint that the 
Labour Party's tax policy is so harsh as 
to dry up the springs of private enterprise, 
but the traditional social democratic 
dilemma-that the need to make the 
existing system work limits the scope for 
egalitarian measures-was not a live issue 
from 1964 to 1970, only because the government 
operated mainly within the limits 
of consensus politics. This was in marked 
contrast to the 1945-51 LaJbour government 
and the Cripps' Special Levy. 

economic policy and 
planning

In the field of economic policy and planning, 
on the other h!ind, n.ationa~isa~ion 
has clearly achieved 1ts maJOr obJectives 
in that it has given the Government 
effective power over these industries' investment, 
pricing and wage policies. ~ot 
only has nationalisation brought etr:ective 
planning to formerly fragmented mdus



14 
tries, but it has enabled the Government 
to dominate the development strategies of 
the industries concerned. Although the 
Government's powers over the national-
ised industries' investment programmes 
are in a formal sense largely negative,_ 
the tendency for the industries them-
selves to put forward ambitious plansgives the Government effective scope 
to control their development. The 
Government also has the whip hand as 
far as price increases are concerned, and 
is a dominant influence behind the scenes 
in the Boards' conduct of wage negotia-
tions. In all these respects the basic ob-
jective of public ownership of making the 
industries responsible to the publicthrough government control has been 
achieved : the policies which particular 
governments follow is another story.
In recent years, and particularly since the 
1961 White Paper which set financial ob-
jectives for public corporations, it has 
often been pointed out that there are 
many similarities between public corpora-
tions and large private companies. Indeed 
the affinities between large public and 
private corporations, save in their rela-
tionship to the Government, are in many 
ways much greater than between large 
and small firms in the private sector. Sup-
porters of public enterprise have gone out 
of their way to refute claims that 
nationalisation brings inefficiency as 
judged by normal commercial standards, 
whilst others have pointed to the similari-
ties to support the thesis that ownershipof industry is essentially an irrelevance. 
Indeed since all businesses are expected to 
derive their income primarily from the 
sale of their output, their decisions are 
bound to be influenced by the willingness 
of customers to pay. 
Nevertheless. there are at least three im-
portant directions in which common 
owner~hio should in future play a more 
decisive and radical role. 
relations at work 
The first is in the relations between people 
at work. We would expect that the posi-
tion of employees would receive particu-
lar recognition in the management of pub-
lie enterprises. Yet the only real change in 
the basic owner-enterprise-employee re-
lationship is that the state may act as a 
more vigilant or conscientious owner tharu 
most bodies of shareholders. The nation-
alised industries have been good employ-
ers in the conventional sense. But workers 
still seem to feel much the same about 
working for a publicly-owned concern as 
for private enterprise. 
The achievement of the basic aims oil 
common ownership clearly requires aJ 
more fundamental change in the relation-
ships of capital and labour than that em-
bodied in the nationalised statutes. What 
nationalised industries ought to aim for 
is the kind of united enterprise socialists 
have always hoped to see from them 
They have the enormous advantage for 
this of starting from a position of a high 
level of trade union organisation ; for 
workers will view with suspicion any 
attempt at democratising the industries 
which is not firmly rooted in representa· 
tive trade union structure. 
Trade union representatives on the boards 
can have a valuable effect on the generalapproach and attitudes in making strategic 1decisions on investment, closure, redund-
ancies and so on which impinge directly 
on the workers in the industry. But even 1if such directors are elected from, and re' 
presentative of, the Trade Unions we 
should not hope for too much from the 
gains to be expected from such participa· 
tion if it is confined to national level 
Many of the most immediate concerns of 
the worker on the shop floor are matten 
for decision at divisional works, or shoplevel. Thus in addition to trade union re-
presentation at board level, there is a need 
for genuine joint determination at lower c 
levels. At the works itself, the 
mechanism would operate through works 
councils of equal numbers of workers' re-
presentatives and management, with speci-
fied powers. And if the two sides could 
not agree there should be provision for 
the resolution of their differences by in-1n 
dependent arbitration. Their agendas ~ 
should be wide, embracing such matters 
as safety and health, manning standards. 
productivity targets and job flexibility. 
These are the kind of things which interest 
14 
tries, but it has enabled the Government 
to dominate the development strategies of 
the industries concerned. Although the 
Government's powers over the national-
ised industries' investment programmes 
are in a formal sense largely negative,_ 
the tendency for the industries them-
selves to put forward ambitious plansgives the Government effective scope 
to control their development. The 
Government also has the whip hand as 
far as price increases are concerned, and 
is a dominant influence behind the scenes 
in the Boards' conduct of wage negotia-
tions. In all these respects the basic ob-
jective of public ownership of making the 
industries responsible to the publicthrough government control has been 
achieved : the policies which particular 
governments follow is another story.
In recent years, and particularly since the 
1961 White Paper which set financial ob-
jectives for public corporations, it has 
often been pointed out that there are 
many similarities between public corpora-
tions and large private companies. Indeed 
the affinities between large public and 
private corporations, save in their rela-
tionship to the Government, are in many 
ways much greater than between large 
and small firms in the private sector. Sup-
porters of public enterprise have gone out 
of their way to refute claims that 
nationalisation brings inefficiency as 
judged by normal commercial standards, 
whilst others have pointed to the similari-
ties to support the thesis that ownershipof industry is essentially an irrelevance. 
Indeed since all businesses are expected to 
derive their income primarily from the 
sale of their output, their decisions are 
bound to be influenced by the willingness 
of customers to pay. 
Nevertheless. there are at least three im-
portant directions in which common 
owner~hio should in future play a more 
decisive and radical role. 
relations at work 
The first is in the relations between people 
at work. We would expect that the posi-
tion of employees would receive particu-
lar recognition in the management of pub-
lie enterprises. Yet the only real change in 
the basic owner-enterprise-employee re-
lationship is that the state may act as a 
more vigilant or conscientious owner tharu 
most bodies of shareholders. The nation-
alised industries have been good employ-
ers in the conventional sense. But workers 
still seem to feel much the same about 
working for a publicly-owned concern as 
for private enterprise. 
The achievement of the basic aims oil 
common ownership clearly requires aJ 
more fundamental change in the relation-
ships of capital and labour than that em-
bodied in the nationalised statutes. What 
nationalised industries ought to aim for 
is the kind of united enterprise socialists 
have always hoped to see from them 
They have the enormous advantage for 
this of starting from a position of a high 
level of trade union organisation ; for 
workers will view with suspicion any 
attempt at democratising the industries 
which is not firmly rooted in representa· 
tive trade union structure. 
Trade union representatives on the boards 
can have a valuable effect on the generalapproach and attitudes in making strategic 1decisions on investment, closure, redund-
ancies and so on which impinge directly 
on the workers in the industry. But even 1if such directors are elected from, and re' 
presentative of, the Trade Unions we 
should not hope for too much from the 
gains to be expected from such participa· 
tion if it is confined to national level 
Many of the most immediate concerns of 
the worker on the shop floor are matten 
for decision at divisional works, or shoplevel. Thus in addition to trade union re-
presentation at board level, there is a need 
for genuine joint determination at lower c 
levels. At the works itself, the 
mechanism would operate through works 
councils of equal numbers of workers' re-
presentatives and management, with speci-
fied powers. And if the two sides could 
not agree there should be provision for 
the resolution of their differences by in-1n 
dependent arbitration. Their agendas ~ 
should be wide, embracing such matters 
as safety and health, manning standards. 
productivity targets and job flexibility. 
These are the kind of things which interest 

the workers, and " management prerogative 
" here should be as dead as it is in 
the determination of wages and conditions. 


A vigorous attack is needed in the publicly 
owned industries on the other 
features of the great class divide in industry, 
between manual and staff employees. 
The glaring contrast in hours 
worked, sick leave, pension conditions and 
so on for these two categories of workers 
is a major scandal. Some nationalised industries, 
particularly electricity supply,
have made progress towards bridging the 
gulf, but a government commitment to 
equal conditions for all may be needed to 

; break down the barriers once and for all. 
A growing diversity in the nationalised 
industries would help greatly in achieving 

1 

all this. The huge corporations, for all 
their advantages, tend to be remote and 
1 bureaucratic in the eyes of the individual 
worker. New regionally based publicly 
owned companies, perhaps under the 
auspices of a state holding company,
could capitalise more easily on traditional 
local loyalties, and set an example in dethe 
damaging image of the great 

It is possible to envisage a number of 

J 
regionally based, trade union-orientated 
public enterprises of an unorthodox kind 
growing out of critical situations like that 
of Upper Clyde Shipbuilders and canalising 
the strong radical pressures in these 
situations into creative channels. 

The second direction in which public and 
:a-operative enterprise could make a 
najor impact is in attacking commer. 
:ialism. The fundamental weakness of 
commercial approach is that it is 
>triving to create new wants in a society, 
md even more in a world, where more 
'asic needs remain unsatisfied. Advertisng, 
whether it be on commercial TV or 
n the colour supplement, is aimed at 
:reating dissatisfaction rather than satis'
action ; but the " needs " to which it 
lirects the greatest attention are trivial in 
·elation to the great unadvertised social 

needs of health, education and housing. 
The values of society are bound to be influenced, 
and may to a large extent be 
determined, by the commercial pressures 
generated by the search for profits of 
hundreds of large and thousands of 
medium size firms. People have to be persuaded 
that happiness lies in the latest 
gadget, beauty in the latest face cream, 
virility in the latest bottled beer and 
domestic bliss in the latest packaged soup. 
The possessio~ of more and trendier consumer 
goods is continually held up as being 
the hall mark of success. 

Mindful of the reaction to Labour's early 
post-war identification with utility, rationing 
and controls, the Party has been chary 
of any public ownership in the consumer 
goods sector. Yet it is just in this field 
that public ownership could operate on 
distinctive and more socially responsible 
(and hence, of course, more controversial) 
principles, rather than as a carbon copy 
of the large private corporation. Certainly 
the Labour movement should consider 
carefully the possible role of public or cooperative 
enterprises whose aim is to give 
the consumer a square deal. From children's 
shoes to motor car exhausts there 
is vast scope for a better value product. 
The concept should be of new and possibly 
quite small enterprises along-side 
existing ones-not vast public monopolies. 
But they would not share the same commercial 
ethos ; they would be part of a 
consumer policy which linked public and 
independent appraisal of goods, with the 
public production of " best buys." 

Although the severity of the threat to the 
environment is subject to fierce and legitimate 
controversy, it is clear that growing 
attention needs to be paid to the wider 
environmental effects of industrial activity. 
Where such considerations are a 
major factor, such as for example in the 
use of atomic power, it is essential that 
the responsibility for them should be part 
of the basic objectives of the enterprise 
and not a constraint imposed by some external 
regulating body to be heeded to the 
minimum in the pursuit of the maximisation 
of profits. 

There are, of course, other forms of com



mon ownership apart from ownership bythe state. Co-operative societies have been 
pioneers in consumer protection and industrial 
democracy ; and municipal enterprise 
or municipal involvement in industrial 
enterprise as in Yugoslavia, mightencourage a responsible attitude towards 
the environment. The Labour Party is 
committed to the creation of a co-operative 
development agency to promote all 
kinds of co-operatives and there is a need 
to think more widely and imaginativelyof the scope for co-operative enterprise. 
The long standing experience of agricultural 
co-operatives and co-operative productive 
societies in other countries merits 
more attention. 

We cannot look solely to common ownership 
to tackle these problems, while large 
areas of industry remain in private ownership. 
If public corporations today are 
rather like public companies both need to 
be transformed. Changes are needed also 
in the relation between the worker and 
the large public company ; there is no 
reason why here too he should not participate 
in various ways in earnings and in 
control. Again the company should show 
greater responsibility to both the customer 
and the community as a whole, particularly 
in conserving resources and protecting 
the environment. 

Public and private enterprise work in one 
society, and there are limits to the extent 
that the managerial ethos in each is likely 
to differ. The movement to greater responsibility 
to their worker and the public 
must, so far as possible, run in parallel in 
both the public and private sector, despite 
the inherent limits in the latter case. The 
large firm. in itself a public institution, 
should be the immediate target for reform. 

an instrument of change 

The creation of further public industries 
similar in most respects to their private 
counterparts is unlikely to bring out anygreat change in the nature of society. It is 
more important at this juncture for socialists 
to consider the ways in which existing 
and new public and co-operative enterprises 
can be an instrument of funda


mental social and industrial change, than 
to argue about whether or not another 
five, ten or two hundred major companiesshould be brought into public ownership. 
The need now is for common ownership 
to challenge the commercial ethos rather 
than accept class barriers within industry ; 
take the lead in a more responsible approach 
to the environment ; and become 
an instrument for experiment and changein building a more civilised society. But 
the public and co-operative sectors cannot 
be an island of radicalism in an otherwise 
conservative industrial society. 
Parallel reforms are also needed to ensure 
that the large public company is not just 
a public institution ; but a publicly responsible 
one. 

Some of us would urge that the Labour 
Party should adopt a radical programmeof enterprise reform. It should support bylegislative action the efforts of the Trade 
Union movement to extend the scope of 
collective bargaining, and to demonstrate 
that management must govern with consent. 
The key points in such a programmemight be : 

1. Supervisory boards to be appointed 
for all enterprises of above a certain size, 
to contain employee representatives and 
whose duties should include the appointment 
of executive directors. This would 
apply to public corporations as well as 
to limited companies. 
2. Establishment of a form of companyin which the supervisory board would 
consist solely of employee representatives. 
3. Establishment of a guarantee corporation 
to facilitate investment in employee-
controlled enterprises. This corporationwould assume management authority only 
if an enterprise were in deficit. 
4. Means whereby employees could 
legally assume control of their companies, 
shareholders being issued with guaranteed 
stock in compensation. 
5. Establishment of an agency to provide 
a broad social audit for all types of 
enterprise, incorporating bodies such as 
the Monopolies Commission. 

6. employment and the 
•

reg1ons 

regional and employment task force report 

A regional problem has been present in 
the United Kingdom for at least half a 
century. While there has been some 
improvement since the war, regional differentials 
in unemployment and in earnings 
persist despite the efforts of successive 
governments. A basic problem is that long 
term policies of area development become 
almost inextricably confused with pressing 
short term objectives of reducingunemployment nationally. For work is a 
basic human need: not only as a means of 
livelihood but because it gives social status 
and social function. The society that 
denies work to its sons and daughters is a 
sick society. Unemployment is a waste, 
but career destruction in middle age, 
without an alternative, is a tragedy. We 
therefore endorse the declared objective of 
the Labour Party in its draft programme-"the complete abolition of long-termunemployment "-as a necessary part of 
social justice. 

objectives 

Our first responsibility as socialists is to 
people. We believe that the objectives of 
regional policy should therefore be these : 

1. To give everyone wherever they live in 
Britain the expectation of a decent and 
rewarding living over their lifetime. One 
cannot abolish unemployment. Technical 
change will mean that many will have to 
change jobs and learn new skills during 
their lifetime. Some can do this unaided, 
but many require help and guidance. 
·Under present arrangements, only a very 
small proportion of the unemployed are 
being retrained. This is wrong. But we do 
not believe that retraining is the complete 
answer. Society is under an obligation to 
see that workers are not thrown on the 
dustheap through no fault of their own. 
We must do whatever is necessary to 
prevent this. While this is a problemthroughout the country, it is a regionalone also because of the concentration of 
so much unemployment in the depressedregions. 

2. To use, whether feasible, the human 
and other resources of the depressedregions to construct there a healthy and 
efficient regional economy, which will 
thereafter continue to prosper under its 
own momentum. Wherever possible, one 
should bring jobs to people, rather than 
the other way round. This is partly because 
one wishes to discourage movement to 
the congested areas, partly also because 
there would seem to be large social and 
psychological costs in the withering and 
breakup of existing communities, even 
many of those which seem to have dreary 
and rundown environments. Neither do 
we believe that Britain is large enough for 
transport costs necessarily to have much 
rational effect in encouraging location in 
the Midlands and South East. In a very 
few areas which are particularly remote 
and whose economies are based on natural 
resources which have been exhausted or 
locational advantages which are no longer 
relevant, it may be necessary to helppeople to move elsewhere if they are to 
continue to be employed, but it should be 
as far as possible to other parts of the 
same region, rather than to congested 
areas. Such a decision was taken byDurham County for many of its remoter 
mining villages. It should be a last resort 
and one would hope that it could normally 
be avoided. 

3. To reduce the concentration of industrial 
activities in the South East and 
Midlands. We do not believe that employment 
should be pushed out of these regions 
if there is a clear economic advantage 
in their staying, but we do believe that 
their costs should reflect fully the social 
costs of their remaining. Important amongst 
these are costs of congestion, traffic 
and environmental. While there are parts 
of the Midlands, and the South East and 
regions which are uncongested traffic-
wise, we believe that every account should 
be taken of recreational needs over the 
next half century which would suggest 
that one would, as far as possible, wish to 
discourage population and employmentgrowth even in the present uncongested 
areas of those regions. We believe that the 
Trade Unions should be encouraged to 
negotiate wage rates net of differences in 
housing and transport costs in the congested 
areas and elsewhere. If simplybecause they live and work in congested 
areas, their transport and housing costs 

are higher without any difference in 
quality, they will be worse off than those 
earning as much elsewhere unless there is 
a congested area cost of living differential 
that fully covers these additional costs. It 
is our impression that even though there 
is a " London " or similar differential this 
has not recently been increasing fast 
enough to reflect the fact that both 
housing and transport costs have been 
rising more rapidly than elsewhere. We 
also believe that it is the best way in which 
we can ensure that any increase in taxes 
also applied differentially in the congestedareas should not be passed on to labour. 
Entry into the Common Market and the 
building of the Channel Tunnel are likely 
to reinforce this concentration in the 
South East and to reinforce the need for 
a more fundamental and rational approach 
to see that there are the right incentives 
to prevent over-concentration in the South 
East and the Midlands. 

4. We believe it important for rational 
policy making to keep distinct the regionalproblem of unbalance and various hardship 
problems which often appear to be 
regional because there is a tendency for 
them to be concentrated in the development 
areas. There are low paid workers, 
prematurely retired people and others in 
hardship in all regions. We believe that 
the nation has a duty to do what it can to 
give all people a high chance of a satisfactory 
career, wherever they live. 
These are our objectives. We discuss 
policies below. 

DEVELOPMENT AREA 
POLICIES 


The greatest single benefit that the 
Government can confer on the less developed 
regions is to achieve and maintain 
national economic prosperity. However, 
macro-economic measures cannot solve 
the regional problems, as experienceshows. There will remain structural differences 
between the regions which ought to 
be corrected. Moreover, in recent history, 
in Britain and abroad, attempts to maintain 
a very high general level of employmenthave been associated with high rates of 
inflation. While it ought to be possible to 

achieve economic policies which woul< 
lead to a high rate of economic growtt 
with less inflation, or at least make infla 
tion tolerable, one would have to plan fo. 
the contingency that this may prove ver~ 
difficult. As a fall back position at least 
we have to contemplate the possibilit~ 
that a greater burden may have to be 
thrown on regional policy in combatin1 
hardship than would be ideal. 

inter-regional balance of 
payments 

One of the fundamental causes of regionaunemployment is that less develope<
regions, unlike countries, cannot devalue 
when their exchange rates are " wrong " 
If Scotland, Wales or the North o 
England had been separate countries, one 
can be sure they would have devalue< 
relative to the rest of the United Kingdonin order to reduce their imports and in 
crease their exports and their employment 
Because the South East and the Midland 
dominate the national economy, foreig1 
exchange rates for the rest of the worl< 
are dominated by the consideration o 
what is best for them, not for people i1 
the less developed regions. While it woul< 
be absurd to go as far as setting up ou 
regions as separate nations with their ow1 
currencies, we do believe that there shoul< 
be an economic unit in the Department o 
Trade and Industry which should have : 
full time occupation to monitor th 
balance of trade between the regions an< 
other evidence of regional imbalance. W• 
believe that they should calculate wha 
measures would be equivalent to a de 
valuation or revaluation of exchange rate 
between regions so as to help achieve ful 
employment in the less developed regiom 

regional employment 
premium 

We believe that the prime instrument to b 
used to help correct " wrong " exchangrates between regions should be the RE 
(Regional Employment Premium). Whil 
other measures may be more appropriate to helping less developed regions i1 
other EEC countries, because they are agricultural, we believe that no measure woul• 
be more logical or effective than REP i1 


Britain. We do not believe that REP was 
established long enough by the Labour 
Government for its worth to be fullytested. Moreover, its beneficial effects 
were reduced by the economy moving 
into the recession in which it now lies. 
We also believe it was a mistake to confine 
REP to manufacturing industry and moreover 
to neutralise its effects by SET in the 
less developed regions. There is a secular 
decline in manufacturing employment. In 
recent years the most important cause of 
structural imbalance in employment between 
the developed and the less developed 
regions has been the growth of service 
employment in the more developedregions, much of which is basic, much of 
which is export-directed. We believe that 
all jobs in the less developed regions 
should be eligible for REP. We would also 
. argue that it should not continue to be an 
ad hominem subsidy but calculated as a 
percentage of a firm's payroll. This would 
provide an incentive to employers of 
higher valued labour, such as head offices, 
and research and development establishments, 
to move to less developed regions. 
One of the most difficult issues is to decide 
the sensitivity of REP to economic change. 
One line of thinking suggests that one 
should frequently alter the level of REP 
in a region to reflect changes in its 
economic relations with other regions and 
with foreign countries-perhaps on an 
analogy with flexible exchange rates between 
nations, On the other hand, it 
appears clear that if employers are to be 
attracted to the less developed regions, 
they require certainty that any subsidies 
will persist for a long time. Rightly, in 
C>ur opinion, this prompted the Labour 
Jovernment to fix REP rates for seven 
' vears guaranteeing that they would not be 
·educed during this period. We believe 
hat the arguments for certainty are 
;tronger than those for flexibility. We 
IVould recommend that there should be a 
·oiling commitment to a stated level of 
tEP for a region: that every year it should 
>e said whether or not it was intended to 
naintain the REP level for seven years in 

1 
he future. Thus any downward change 
IVould be given at least seven years' notice. 
}iven the length of time before it is likelyhat we can be sure that a given region 
tas moved from the less developed to the 

prosperous category, we do not believe 
this a great disadvantage. However, we 
would argue that central governmentshould be able to increase REP levels in a 
region without notice if this should seem 
desirable. This would provide no disincentive 
to employers. 

regional capital incentives 

The great advantage of REP is that it bears 
directly on the key factor. If labour is 
generally unemployed then it is labour 
that receives the subsidy. We discussed 
at some length how far this should be 
supplemented by continuing differential 
regional capital incentives. Some of us 
felt that it would be wiser to switch 
resources from differential investment 
allowances to generally higher levels of 
REP. The balance of opinion was that it 
would be wise to continue with differential 
capital allowances at least for the time 
being. This is because it was felt industry 
would require this incentive, particularly 
as so much new industry is capital intensive 
and because such a high proportion 
of employment increases in developmentareas have been in so-called " footloose " 
industries diverted from the congestedareas. While we did not discuss the possibility 
of replacing REP and RegionalCapital Allowances by regional differences 
in VAT, several members thought that this 
had merit and should be considered. 
We accept the classification of areas into 
four groups given in the Labour's Pro-
gramme for Britain for the purposes of 
calculating the rate at which REP is to be 
levied: Development Areas, Intermediate 
Areas, Neutral Areas and CongestedAreas. (We discuss in the next section 
how far a negative REP or payroll tax 
makes sense in the congested areas. The 
level of REP in the neutral areas would be 
zero as would be differential capitalallowances.) Later in this section we suggest 
a different principle for deciding what 
category an area should fall into. 

We feel strongly that REP and regional 
capital allowances should be the main 
resource flows used to correct economic 
imbalance between the regions. Generaily 
we believe that to have too many policies 


and too many sources of flows of moneybetween the regions to be both wasteful 
and confusing. A multiplicity of devices 
confuses decision makers in firms and 
elsewhere who have to make locational 
decisions. There is considerable evidence 
that the majority of firms in this country 
will not take into account very subtle 
fiscal incentives. This is a theme to which 
we return. Even so we believe there will 
probably be a need for some sort of discretionary 
finance for use in exceptionalcircumstances. We believe that the ToryGovernment's Industry Act lays too much 
emphasis in handing out very large sums 
of money beyond the control of Parliament 
and with criteria that are totallyunclear and apparently unpredictable. It is 
difficult to see how such an approach can 
help industry make rational decisions and 
we believe also that it will tend to encourage 
lobbying in Whitehall. Those that 
have the best access are most likely to getthe largest share of what is going. Despite 
this objection, we do believe a very much 
smaller fund should be available for the 
emergency case, such as ucs, or any other 
instance of intense short run hardshipwhich must be relieved. 

a regional development bank 

We do not believe that shortage of funds 
or imperfections in the capital market are 
important reasons why industry does not 
flourish in the development areas. In 
some cases it may be easier to get money 
in the South East than in Scotland, for 
example, but we do not think that this 
itself will justify setting up a regional 
development bank. Neither do we believe 
any special arrangement is needed to 
promote mergers or other "rationalisation 
" in development areas. For these 
reasons we have rejected any idea of 
setting up a regional development bank or 
" merchant bank " on IRC principles. However, 
we do believe that there is a role for 
a different kind of bank, much more 
modelled on the activities of the World 
Bank. We see three major differences 
between this kind of bank and a merchant 
bank. 

1. It will be much more active in searching 
out and developing investment opportunities 
through a network of local offices 

2. It will be much more concerned, ir 
every individual case, that an 
to which it is being asked to contribuh 
capital will yield the return expected b)
the proposer. It would not only look a· 
its own investment but at the profitabilit) 
of the investment from the point of viev; 
of the proposer. To this end, it wouic 
engage in and finance pre-investmemstudies which will go into as much detai 
as is relevant in order to try and des· 
a good investment project. 
3. Where necessary, it will do its best tc 
find entrepreneurship and other technica 
resources not immediately available to tht 
proposer, but which will help make th( 
best of the outlay. 
In short, it will take a far more activ(
interest in ensuring that the investment il 
a success. It will lend to private firms 
state enterprise, or to local government ir 
the less developed and developed regions 
In some cases it will make a loan to < 
number of producers whose co-operatior 
is essential for the fruition of a projectIt seems to us quite wrong, however, tha 
such a development bank should be alsc 
a mechanism for subsidising investmen 
in the regions. If it is not expected to b(
profitable on average in its investmen 
policy and cover its capital charges. it1 
objective of stimulating enterprise will b(
damped. Moreover, if it did subsidis(
certain kinds of investment, this woulc 
discourage private capital for investmen 
in the developed regions, so that thi: 
might actually begin the risk of capitastarvation there unless the developmenbank were prepared to finance everyon( 
to a virtually unlimited extent. 

state holding company 

We believe that there may be scope fo1 
enterprise on the Italian IRI model, princi 
pally in order to increase the amount ot 
entrepreneurship available in the regionAgain we feel it is important that tht 
objectives of any enterprise of this kine 
should be the same as any other statt 


enterprise, but that state enterprise should 
be subject to the same REP and differential 
regional capital incentives as private enterprise, 
and should take advantage of this to 
increase their employment in the less 
developed regions relative to the rest of 
the country. 

regional machinery in 
Whitehall 

We feel that the division of responsibilitybetween DTI and DOE has major drawbacks 
and we would wish to consider 
several alternative arrangements. The first 
would be placing all regional responsibilities 
under DOE. This might seem more 
sensible than the reverse, if only because 
DOE has many more functions of verydifferent kinds to perform by comparison 
with DTI. Moreover, it might bring together 
economic and environmental planning 
in a more useful way than at present.
The second possibility might be that there 
should be a Minister who co-ordinated 
the activities of DTI, DOE and the Treasury 
in relation to regional economic policy. 
We were not able to come to a conclusion 
and feel there should be further study.
Whatever the form of organisation, we 
feel that it is important that Whitehall 
should provide technical advice and 
expertise to the regions. It should also 
compile every year, a regional budget 
which would quantify all forms of aid, 
their objectives, and also appraise their 
success so far as it is possible. We believe 
this is essential because there is profounddisagreement between those who believe 
that the fiscal system works to the advantage 
of certain areas in many ways and 
those who conversely believe that the 
South East stands to gain. We also believe 
that there are many forms of hidden 
regional help which we believe are probably 
far from cost effective and which 
should be struck out, quite apart from the 
waste and confusion involved in a multiplicity 
of regional policies. In general, we 
feel that regional policies should mainly 
operate through measures already listed, 
and that there should be as little reliance 
on merely administrative arrangements as 
possible. We recognise that mcs and ODPs 
do appear to have been important in 
influencing locational decisions away from 

London, though by their very nature they 
are the instruments most likely to divert 
away from the congested areas, industries 
which might have been more profitablycarried on there, even if they met their 
full social costs. It is because no analysisof costs and benefits is done when an ODP 
or an me is, or is not, granted. We believe 
there should be much more research into 
this in particular cases and we hope if the 
measures outlined above do become 
effective, it may become possible to rely 
less and less on administrative arrangements 
like ODPs or mcs. We are also 
anxious to consider trying to integrateregional and local government fiscal 
systems. We believe that the local government 
system should be drastically simplified 
and that grants from central government 
be primarily related to two factors 
only: the size of local population and 
some index of hardship which would 
reflect differences of unemployment, 
poverty, and age structure, principally. 
At present the concept of needs which is 
largely used to determine the size of grantto local authorities is too strongly related 
to arbitrary factors. There is some tendency 
for local authorities which have been 
spending at a high rate of their own 
volition to be able to continue to do so. 
It is far from clear that the presentfinancial system redirects governmentfinance towards those parts of the country 
in most need of public support because 
their populations are poorer on average. 

One of the worst sources of confusion and 
inefficiency is the tangle of Whitehall departments, 
regional and other bodies all 
involved in regional policy. Not enoughfreedom or power is given to local government 
for it to take the initiative to win 
itself a better future. Regional policy in 
future ought to work much more throughthe new top-tier local authorities. To this 
end these measures should be undertaken: 

1. The present structure ~f developmentareas, special areas, should be swept away 
as suggested earlier. Instead all top-tierlocal authorities should be divided into 4 
groups: those with especially severe labour 
shortage ; those with somewhat below 
average unemployment and hardship ; 
those with above average unemployment 

and hardship ; and those with especially 
severe unemployment and hardship. REP 
and other regional incentives should be 
graduated so that the second group receives 
zero incentives ; the third receives 
incentives at one rate and the fourth at a 
higher. The first group should, in principle, 
pay a payroll tax but there are two sets of 
arguments that may militate against this. 
The first comes from a desire to minimise 
the administrative complexities of regionalpolicy ; the second is spelled out below. 
Areas of persistent labour shortage are 
anyway likely to be congested areas and 
it is to the latter that explicit attention 
should be paid. A particular local authority 
may have a mixture of areas of more 
than one type within it. In deciding which 
group it shall belong to, this mixture 
should be considered. This might mean 
that if a local authority area were mostly 
prosperous and flourishing, but had one 
or two pockets of severe unemployment, 
it might not be judged to qualify for REP 

and other regional incentives, on the 
grounds that it ought to be able to planits own destiny. On the other hand, a 
local authority with a preponderance of 
areas with considerable unemploymentmight rank for REP even though it had one 
or two pockets where industrial growth 
was flourishing. 

2. Every local authority in the new local 
government structure should be given a 
duty and powers to raise the standard of 
living and reduce unemployment within its 
area by whatever means are within its 
power. This should be perhaps its most 
important objective, though it will not 
forget that part of the real income of its 
citizens is the environment within which 
they live. Local authorities should therefore 
strike a balance between raising local 
real incomes, helping special groups such 
as the persistently unemployed, and environmental 
concern in their planning. 
They should be required to produce an 
economic policy statement and a plan for 
their area (of'which the present structure 
plan would be a part). In this they would 
chart past changes in jobs and opportunities 
in their area. Looking forward , 
they would relate the growth in demand 
for manpower of various types with that 
being produced locally through the school


ing system. They would consider how far 
the structure of local industry is likely to 
provide job opportunities which will 
enable citizens to raise their income levels 
during their lifetimes. They would formulate 
a strategy for their economic future. 

3. Local authorities would be grant aided · 
to help them acquire the staff to give them 
the best possible advice on industrial and 
economic policy. 
4. The present Local Government Finance 
system should be drastically simplified. 
Rates could be used to a much greater 
extent as a tax on rising land values and 
in such a way as to have a restrainingeffect on inflation in land prices, since one 
consequence of rising land prices would be 
that those who bought at high prices would 
find themselves paying rates at a level 
that reflected those high prices. The remaining 
regressive features of rates would 
be removed and at the same time more 
frequent revaluation would make rates a 
more bouyant source of revenue. The 
effect of this would be that local government 
revenue would generally be most 
bouyant in those parts of the countrywhere land prices have been rising fastest. 
These are mostly in the richer and more 
congested regions. To balance this and 
make it possible to reduce rate poundage 
while aligning rateable values more closely 
with changes in land prices, another major 
source of local revenue will be introduced, 
probably the freedom to fix a local supplement 
to the income tax. There will also be 
a need to introduce sources of taxation to 
finance services that one local authority 
supplies to some citizens of other local 
authorities or foreigners: such as a tax on 
employment of non-residents or a tourist 
tax. Finding new sources of revenue will 
not solve the problems. These tend to helpthe rich authorities find more money. The 
local government finance system should 
be used in future to a much greater extent 
to redistribute resources from the richer to 
the poorer areas of the country. The 
needs component in rate support grant 
should be much diminished in importance 
and replaced by a simpler system by which 
a local authority will receive in grantsums related, first, to the size of its population 
and second, to various indicators of 

hardship-levels of income per head, and 
unemployment principally. Local authorities 
should have more discretion to use 
their resources to their own best advantage. 


Where local authorities believe that their 
income potential could be improved bybetter infrasturcture, they can go to the 
Development Bank for funds if they are 
eligible. Examples of this might be building 
more public housing than their own 
population warrants to house key personnel 
who would accompany firms that 
might move into the area and increase 
employment opportunities or it might be 
building an industrial estate to attract 
footloose firms or indeed any other development 
which would improve the en· 
vironment and in such a way as to improvethe economic potential of the region. All 
roads built for development might in the 
same way be financed by special loans 
from the Development Bank. Just as with 
industry, it would be the duty of the staff 
of the Bank to help local authorities to 
make the best use of funds, if necessaryby financing pre-investment studies to helpdecide the best strategy for any given 
area. 

We believe that the measures listed above 
provide a more sensible framework and 
give the right incentives to the right 
r bodies to promote regional development 
, 
,, but they would not be complete unless the 
right policies operated in the congested 

e areas also. 

n THE CONGESTED AREAS 

;t What is the nature of the regional problemoutside the less developed areas? There 
P are arguments that even London is sufferte 
ing from structural problems that need 
d attention. We believe, however, that an 
1t upturn in the economy should solve most 
.o of those difficulties and that much of the 
te migration of jobs from London represents 
1t a success for regional policy and should 
it not be discouraged. In general terms we 
b would encourage local authorities in congested 
areas to do what they can to boost 
their economies but they should not reuire 
aid from central Government. 

Logically, it might be supposed that the 
right and logical measure would be a 
payroll tax to complement REP elsewhere. 
However, we believe that most of the 
social costs of expansion of employmentin the South East are not related to employment 
as such and are best dealt with 
by a direct attack on congestion and 
environmental pollution. 

Labour's Programme for Britain states 
that " our aim is to provide active encouragement 
to firms to move from congested 
areas and to help offset for firms 
that do move the loss of infrastructure 
and valuable ancillary activities which 
often make congested areas so attractive." 
We agree wholeheartedly that the objectives 
of regional policy can only be 
achieved if one acts, in the congested, as 
well as in the development, areas. We 
believe, however, that the well-being of 
the country does depend upon an efficient 
and flourishing economy and that unless 
careful thought is given to the type of 
policies to be adopted, there is danger that 
crude policies might damage the economyof the Midlands and the South East without 
being compensated by a least as great 
an advantage to the development regions.
The case for deflecting employmentgrowth from the South East and the 
Midlands is often that social costs of 
growth there are not allowed for in the 
decision making of private firms. There 
are often strong environmental and traffic 
reasons for encouraging the out-migrationof jobs from those regions. To a large 
extent, jobs are already migrating from 
the congested areas. This tendency has 
increased dramatically, especially in 
London, during the 1960s. Left to themselves, 
market forces tend to mean these 
migrating jobs move no further than less 
congested areas of the South East and 
Midlands. One of the commonest reasons 
for this is that employers are reluctant to 
move far because the uncertainties and 
costs of moving to a development area 
are much greater for them, because of 
defective information. It seems, therefore,
quite as important to find means of helping 
employers to move to the development 
areas when they decide to migrate, as it 
is to encourage out-migration itself. We 
have all these objectives in mind when 


considering the policies which we wish to 
recommend. 
On the face of it, the simplest policy 
measure one could adopt would be a 
negative regional employment premium, 
or payroll tax, to be levied in the congested 
areas. One would take this into account 
when deciding on the rates of REP in the 
development and intermediate areas. The 
basic aim would remain the same, to get 
the right exchange rates, so to speak,
between regions. However, despite its 
simplicity, we see several major dis-
advantages to this policy. All employees 
in the South East and Midlands do not 
impose the same social costs of congestion. 
It depends upon where they work, where 
they live, and to some extent on what theydo. One might wish the payroll tax to be 
very much higher, say, in the City of 
London than in the outer London 
Boroughs or in towns beyond the Green 
Belt. But in fact, congestion caused by 
some long distance commuters to the 
City using railway lines, for example to 
the North of London, on which then, is 
excess capacity, is very small compared 
with short distance commuting. There is 
a great difference in the congestion im-
posed by changes in employment, depend-
ing in part on how and where these people 
travel. If they travel by road in generalthey cause more congestion than if they 
use public transport. If one turns to 
environmental costs, the variation is 
probably even greater. There are manyfirms in urban areas which cause air or 
noise pollution which would be better 
located further away from people. No 
payroll tax as such could identify these 
firms in a way which was at all accurate. 
While we believe the merits of a payroll 
tax should perhaps be studied further, we 
think it is probably too crude an instru-
ment to be effective in furthering regional 
policy. 
A method of achieving some of these ends 
would be through a proper road-pricingpolicy, for example a commuter tax in 
congested areas. In general, the further 
someone commutes, the more likely it is 
that his employment will be in a congested 
area and that he will be increasing the 
congestion there by his presence. This is 
only a rough rule and there is a difficulty 
of distinguishing between journeys made 
in more or less congested conditions. 
There is also the problem that it is easier 
to levy such charges on public transportwhich then tends to mean that more 
people will use their own cars, so making 
the congestion worse. This could be recti-
fied if road pricing were introduced so that 
those who use the roads in congested 
areas could pay the cost which their 
presence causes. In this case one would 
probably only wish to impose such a tax 
on the private road user. We believe that 
it is time that Government which has 
been considering road pricing for manyyears should put it into effect, especially 
in the Midlands and the South East. It is 
technically and administratively feasible. 
Only the will is missing. While it would be 
opposed by the motorcar lobby and manyothers who are anxious not to restrict the 
use of the private motorcar, we believe 
that reducing the volume of private cars 
on our congested streets would be in the 
national interest. It would encouragepeople to use public transport, it would 
enable buses to run a better service, and 
the height of the charges would encourage 
many activities which feel they depend 
upon the greater use of road transport, to 
migrate from those congested areas. So 
we believe that this will contribute both 
to a more sensible transport and regionalpolicy simultaneously. We would agreethat some of the same effects could be 
achieved by really high parking charges 
in congested areas, but the levels would 
have to be much higher than now if it 
were to have an effect upon the perform-
ance of public transport and also to act 
as an incentive for firms to out-migrate. 
The third possibility would be to have a 
tax proportional to land values. Land 
values tend to be higher in the 
congested areas. Indeed the rise in land 
prices in the South East and Midlands has 
contributed to the recent rapid out-migra-
tion. It is the market's way of showingthat there is too much congestion and to 
many people in the South East. We do not 
believe it right to try and pretend that land 
is not scarce. As will be discussed below, 
we do believe it right to try to mitigate 
the hardship caused by this. We believe it , 
considering the policies which we wish to 
recommend. 
On the face of it, the simplest policy 
measure one could adopt would be a 
negative regional employment premium, 
or payroll tax, to be levied in the congested 
areas. One would take this into account 
when deciding on the rates of REP in the 
development and intermediate areas. The 
basic aim would remain the same, to get 
the right exchange rates, so to speak,
between regions. However, despite its 
simplicity, we see several major dis-
advantages to this policy. All employees 
in the South East and Midlands do not 
impose the same social costs of congestion. 
It depends upon where they work, where 
they live, and to some extent on what theydo. One might wish the payroll tax to be 
very much higher, say, in the City of 
London than in the outer London 
Boroughs or in towns beyond the Green 
Belt. But in fact, congestion caused by 
some long distance commuters to the 
City using railway lines, for example to 
the North of London, on which then, is 
excess capacity, is very small compared 
with short distance commuting. There is 
a great difference in the congestion im-
posed by changes in employment, depend-
ing in part on how and where these people 
travel. If they travel by road in generalthey cause more congestion than if they 
use public transport. If one turns to 
environmental costs, the variation is 
probably even greater. There are manyfirms in urban areas which cause air or 
noise pollution which would be better 
located further away from people. No 
payroll tax as such could identify these 
firms in a way which was at all accurate. 
While we believe the merits of a payroll 
tax should perhaps be studied further, we 
think it is probably too crude an instru-
ment to be effective in furthering regional 
policy. 
A method of achieving some of these ends 
would be through a proper road-pricingpolicy, for example a commuter tax in 
congested areas. In general, the further 
someone commutes, the more likely it is 
that his employment will be in a congested 
area and that he will be increasing the 
congestion there by his presence. This is 
only a rough rule and there is a difficulty 
of distinguishing between journeys made 
in more or less congested conditions. 
There is also the problem that it is easier 
to levy such charges on public transportwhich then tends to mean that more 
people will use their own cars, so making 
the congestion worse. This could be recti-
fied if road pricing were introduced so that 
those who use the roads in congested 
areas could pay the cost which their 
presence causes. In this case one would 
probably only wish to impose such a tax 
on the private road user. We believe that 
it is time that Government which has 
been considering road pricing for manyyears should put it into effect, especially 
in the Midlands and the South East. It is 
technically and administratively feasible. 
Only the will is missing. While it would be 
opposed by the motorcar lobby and manyothers who are anxious not to restrict the 
use of the private motorcar, we believe 
that reducing the volume of private cars 
on our congested streets would be in the 
national interest. It would encouragepeople to use public transport, it would 
enable buses to run a better service, and 
the height of the charges would encourage 
many activities which feel they depend 
upon the greater use of road transport, to 
migrate from those congested areas. So 
we believe that this will contribute both 
to a more sensible transport and regionalpolicy simultaneously. We would agreethat some of the same effects could be 
achieved by really high parking charges 
in congested areas, but the levels would 
have to be much higher than now if it 
were to have an effect upon the perform-
ance of public transport and also to act 
as an incentive for firms to out-migrate. 
The third possibility would be to have a 
tax proportional to land values. Land 
values tend to be higher in the 
congested areas. Indeed the rise in land 
prices in the South East and Midlands has 
contributed to the recent rapid out-migra-
tion. It is the market's way of showingthat there is too much congestion and to 
many people in the South East. We do not 
believe it right to try and pretend that land 
is not scarce. As will be discussed below, 
we do believe it right to try to mitigate 
the hardship caused by this. We believe it , 

might be advantageous if there were more 
frequent revaluations of rateable values 
and these should be brought more in line 
with the rise in land prices. This would 
correct some of the bias in the present 
rating system with its infrequent revaluations 
which do not fully reflect increases 
in market values, and would mean an increase 
in land taxes in the more congested 
and prosperous areas relative to the rest 
of the country. We also believe that if 
the principle of site valuation were 
adopted for industrial and other employment 
generating uses, there would be an 
additional incentive to firms to decide to 
move out from the more congested areas. 
If out-migration can be encouraged and 
grant aided so that there is much less 
hardship, in the end we believe that this 
will be the best way of reducing pressure 
of rising land prices in the South East as 
well as generating the jobs that peopleneed in other regions of the country. 

Government should provide information 
for people and employers contemplating 
moving from the congested areas especially 
the small firms, to a much greater 
extent than at the moment. It should be 
possible for everyone to go to an office 
within easy reach of their home in a 
congested area and discover what homes, 
what rents and what conditions are available 
in new towns in the development 
areas, and also what their employment 
prospects would be there. If they then 
decide to move they could be helped with 
the problems of the move and to find 
suitable accommodation at the other end 
before they arrive. Movement costs should 
be grant aided (but at least a part of this 
might be refundable to the Government if 
they thereafter decided to move awayfrom a development area). The offices 
should be staffed independently by local 
authorities in the congested areas and 
preferably by people from the staff of 
development area local authorities on 
secondment. At the same time, development 
area local authorities should open 
offices in the congested areas to which 
employers may turn to know about prospects 
and possibilities there. Jn this way, 
the local authorities should be able to 
discover firms anxious for new premises 
and requiring special facilities or the 

services of the Development Bank. These 
facilities might be operated in the congested 
areas under the auspices of the 
Development Bank. Again we would 
recommend that the moves of such firms 
should be grant aided and that perhaps 
Government should meet 25 per cent of 
their audited movement expenses when 
they move to a development area, as well 
as the Development Bank be encouraged 
to make a loan to cover the remainder. 

This would have the additional advantage 
that the Development Bank would have to 
assure itself and the client that the move 
was to that extent profitable for the firm. 

MANPOWER POLICY 

The analysis we have made so far of the 
regional problems has been: 

1. that the less developed regions are 
unable to compete with the Midlands and 
South East because their exchange rates 
are " wrong " and this has resulted in 
unemployment ; 
2. that many years of unemploymentslackened the spirit of entrepreneurshipand put some obstacles in the way of free 
flow capital. 
But because the symptom we commonly 
look for as the evidence of a regionalproblem is unemployment, it is not difficult 
to confuse regional problems with 
more generalised hardship. We had two 
areas of enquiry: manpower problems 
as well as regional ones. At first sightthese two might seem widely divorced 
from one another but they are linked 
because in practice we can discern and 
monitor the regional problem by citing 
problems of unemployment. Putting it 
crudely, the direct impact of moving10,000 jobs from London to Scotland is 
that Scottish unemployment will fall byI0,000 and London unemployment will 
rise by 10,000. It is realised that there are 
subsequent effects which usually favour 
such a movement, but the mere evening-
out of unemployment rates, activity rates, 
or average earnings between the regions 
will help the disadvantaged as a whole 


much less than may appear at first sight. 
When the regional policies suggested in 
earlier sections of this memorandum have 
been adopted, thereafter the most fundamentally 
satisfying approach will be to 
key on to those in employment hardship 
as such, regardless of where they live. 
Employment hardship covers job opportunities, 
monetary returns and job satisfaction. 
Such an approach is only incidentally 
regional because of the greater concentration 
of these problems in the less 
developed regions. 

lt is clear that proper demand management 
provides the most significant aid to 
the disadvantaged. We are more concerned 
here with identifying structural defects in 
our economy and suggesting remedies. 
Overcoming structural problems is more 
important when demand is managedpoorly but it remains worthwhile at all 
times. 

We do not believe it practical to giveeveryone a right to a job all the time. In a 
society of inevitably rapid technological 
change, there are bound to be changes in 
the demand for labour which will mean 
that people may have to change their jobs, 
perhaps several times in their lifetime. We 
do believe that everyone who wishes it 
has the right to a satisfying pattern of 
work over their lifetime. This means that 
they should find the jobs they do, whether 
one or many, reasonably satisfying and 
fulfilling, stretching their abilities and 
sufficiently remunerative. This means that 
when someone becomes unemployed, 
society has a duty to retrain such a person. 
But it means much more than this. It 
means that local authorities in cooperation 
with Whitehall have a duty to plan their 
educational programmes so as to producea reasonable expectation of a suitable job 
for everyone leaving school. No one 
should be prevented from training for 
any job his or her talents suit him for. 
But schools should clearly indicate what 
the future demand for labour is likely to 
be, so that no one should leave school to 
find , quite unexpectedly, that work of the 
kind for which he is trained is comparatively 
scarce. It also means that local 
authorities should pay some attention to 
the composition of their labour force, 

trying to encourage new businesses to 
settle within their boundaries, not that 
everyone can be provided with a suitable 
job near his or her home town. In some 
jobs, the locational advantages may be 
such, that they will be concentrated in 
only a few parts of the economy, but 
though there will oe exceptions, there 
should be some attempt to provide a 
balance of job opportunities in every part 
of the country. One is not going so far as 
to say that there must be detailed man· 
power planning, that is, attempts b} 
government at various levels to predict the 
volume and structure of labour "required 
" at some future date so that step~ 
can be taken in the intervening period t< 
ensure that labour is available. The in 
formation required for such an exercis~ 
is not available and at present the expertis6 
of government in these areas, especiall) 
local government, is sadly lacking. More· 
over, the theoretical principles to be usee 
are still being discovered. However, om 
may hope to move in this direction. Mean 
while, there are policies to increase worke1 
information and to reduce the cost 
finding a satisfactory new job, for exampleimprovement in employment exchang{
facilities, redundancy payment schemes 
earnings related unemployment compensa 
tion, as well as grants to cover movin! 
expenses in certain cases. For examplewhy are not public employment exchange! 
open in the evening, thus allowing em 
ployed workers to get better informatior 
on alternative jobs? Why is there not ver]
much better information available in an]
one employment exchange on jobs avail 
able in other parts of the country? I 
anyone moves house, it should be possibl• 
to find out what kind of job at what level. 
of pay are likely to be available both fo 
his wife and himself. 


7. urban policies 
urban policy task force report 
The problems of our urban areas are 
multifarious and complex. No short state-
ment could do justice to any of them, let 
alone all. We believe that it is importantto focus on a few of the most acute of 
them, to which a future Labour govern-
ment must give priority-not least be-
cause they have been mishandled or 
avoided by the present administration. 
In logical order we think that these 
priority problems are the growing crisis 
in the inner city; the problem of manag-
ing the growth of large urban areas ; the 
problem of urban transport, particularly 
the reconciliation of mass car ownershipwith maintenance of adequate publictransport ; the problem of coping with 
public pressures on the countryside ; the 
problem of the adequacy of local govern-
ment to the demands put upon it ; the 
problem of land for building ; and the 
problem of the quality of the environ-
ment. 
inner city-the innermost ringthe commercial core of our major;tttes and conurbations-remains a stub-
~orn problem area. Much has been done 
.o alleviate misery by demolishing slums 
' tnd by building new homes with public 
,noney-however deficient some of this 
1 1ew housing has proved to be on human 
, ~rounds. But this inner ring is still the 
~one where the least fortunate in our 
ociety-immigrants and newcomers to 
he city, those suffering racial or social 
lrejudice, the unskilled service workers, 
he unmarried mothers and fatherless 
amilies, and a very wide range of peoplevho are under-privileged through no fault 
\f their own-tend disproportionately to 
luster. Here the problems of low income, 
.ncertain employment, poor skills, low 
1formation levels, inadequate education, 
xploitation by the unscrupulous few, 
rime and social malaise, all coalesce and 
~inforce one another. 
omething has been done in recent years, 
y experimental programmes, to grapple
·ith these deficiencies. But more needs to 
e done. The characteristic problem of 
many people in these areas is that they 
find it very difficult to grapple with the 
multifold problems of modern living-job,
transport, home, health, education-that 
tend to impinge upon them with particu-
lar severity. They need co-ordinated, pro-
fessional, disinterested help. Progressive 
local authorities, with some central gov-
ernment backing, are doing something to 
provide this. But there are many defici-
encies. Not all authorities are progressive ; 
and the laggards include areas of serious 
deprivation. Even the eager authorities 
may be less than enthusiastic about help-
ing newcomers. And because of the frag-
mented responsibilities of local govern-
ment-to be perpetrated in the present 
local government reform-a single local 
authority cannot offer effective, across the 
board help with the whole complex of 
problems. This last criticism is most tell-
ing in the big conurbations, where some 
of the biggest problems occur. 
First, therefore, we think that there is a 
need to define social priority areas, on the 
lines of educational priority areas, where 
help will be concentrated. We think that 
in these areas, many of which will be in 
the conurbations, the two tiers of metro-
politan government (assuming a continu-
ance of the proposed local government 
structure, which is questioned below)
should co-operate to draw up a social de-
velopment plan with central government 
aid. Furthermore, if in such an area a 
lower tier authority fails to exercise its 
powers to execute the plan, we believe 
that the upper tier authority should have 
default powers to step in-on, for in-
stance, the designation of Action Areas 
for early redevelopment under the 1968 
Planning Act. The same would go for the 
provision of an integrated service for in-
formation and help for residents in these 
areas which should include representa-
tives 'of both tiers because both will be 
providing necessary services. These should 
combine law centres, housing advice and 
information about jobs including re-
training. 
Secondly as we say below, we think that 
there will be an urgent need to consider 
the division of powers between the two 
levels of local government in the conur-
7. urban policies 
urban policy task force report 
The problems of our urban areas are 
multifarious and complex. No short state-
ment could do justice to any of them, let 
alone all. We believe that it is importantto focus on a few of the most acute of 
them, to which a future Labour govern-
ment must give priority-not least be-
cause they have been mishandled or 
avoided by the present administration. 
In logical order we think that these 
priority problems are the growing crisis 
in the inner city; the problem of manag-
ing the growth of large urban areas ; the 
problem of urban transport, particularly 
the reconciliation of mass car ownershipwith maintenance of adequate publictransport ; the problem of coping with 
public pressures on the countryside ; the 
problem of the adequacy of local govern-
ment to the demands put upon it ; the 
problem of land for building ; and the 
problem of the quality of the environ-
ment. 
inner city-the innermost ringthe commercial core of our major;tttes and conurbations-remains a stub-
~orn problem area. Much has been done 
.o alleviate misery by demolishing slums 
' tnd by building new homes with public 
,noney-however deficient some of this 
1 1ew housing has proved to be on human 
, ~rounds. But this inner ring is still the 
~one where the least fortunate in our 
ociety-immigrants and newcomers to 
he city, those suffering racial or social 
lrejudice, the unskilled service workers, 
he unmarried mothers and fatherless 
amilies, and a very wide range of peoplevho are under-privileged through no fault 
\f their own-tend disproportionately to 
luster. Here the problems of low income, 
.ncertain employment, poor skills, low 
1formation levels, inadequate education, 
xploitation by the unscrupulous few, 
rime and social malaise, all coalesce and 
~inforce one another. 
omething has been done in recent years, 
y experimental programmes, to grapple
·ith these deficiencies. But more needs to 
e done. The characteristic problem of 
many people in these areas is that they 
find it very difficult to grapple with the 
multifold problems of modern living-job,
transport, home, health, education-that 
tend to impinge upon them with particu-
lar severity. They need co-ordinated, pro-
fessional, disinterested help. Progressive 
local authorities, with some central gov-
ernment backing, are doing something to 
provide this. But there are many defici-
encies. Not all authorities are progressive ; 
and the laggards include areas of serious 
deprivation. Even the eager authorities 
may be less than enthusiastic about help-
ing newcomers. And because of the frag-
mented responsibilities of local govern-
ment-to be perpetrated in the present 
local government reform-a single local 
authority cannot offer effective, across the 
board help with the whole complex of 
problems. This last criticism is most tell-
ing in the big conurbations, where some 
of the biggest problems occur. 
First, therefore, we think that there is a 
need to define social priority areas, on the 
lines of educational priority areas, where 
help will be concentrated. We think that 
in these areas, many of which will be in 
the conurbations, the two tiers of metro-
politan government (assuming a continu-
ance of the proposed local government 
structure, which is questioned below)
should co-operate to draw up a social de-
velopment plan with central government 
aid. Furthermore, if in such an area a 
lower tier authority fails to exercise its 
powers to execute the plan, we believe 
that the upper tier authority should have 
default powers to step in-on, for in-
stance, the designation of Action Areas 
for early redevelopment under the 1968 
Planning Act. The same would go for the 
provision of an integrated service for in-
formation and help for residents in these 
areas which should include representa-
tives 'of both tiers because both will be 
providing necessary services. These should 
combine law centres, housing advice and 
information about jobs including re-
training. 
Secondly as we say below, we think that 
there will be an urgent need to consider 
the division of powers between the two 
levels of local government in the conur-

bations. The upper tier authority should 
at least have concurrent powers on housing 
inside the conurbations, as in London 
-not just for overspill. It will be imperative 
to provide a pool of housing for the 
entire conurbation, not one limited byquite arbitrary district boundaries. We 
think that in some cases-for instance 
the advice centres-provision may need to 
be made mandatory on lower tier 
authorities. 

Thirdly, we believe that the crisis in the 
inner rings will never be met so long as 
local authorities find their burdens rising 
while their tax base (in terms of rateable 
value) falls. Yet, with the exodus of population 
and employment from the cities on 
the lines that are long familiar in North 
America, this is now the case. We believe 
that a three-pronged attack is necessaryon this problem. First, as we argue below, 
the present local government reform must 
be replaced, or modified, so as to give the 
inner cities a share of the buoyantrevenues of the growing areas all around 
them. Secondly, new sources of lc:al 
revenue must be found-however much 
the Treasury may fear loss of some of its 
own favourite sources in income. Here 
we are at one with the recommendations 
made in the preceding chapter. A local 
sales tax and a tourist tax are one possibility 
; lotteries and municipal enterprises 
are another. But third, we think that an 
altogether new source of help will be 
needed from the centre-one that does 
not threaten the independence of urban 
authorities. This is especially critical for 
the renewal of outworn infrastructure. 

Such a source, we think, could be provided 
by an Urban Development Corporation 
: a new public body which could tap 
funds from the private market, directing 
them out of the private and into the public 
sector. It would borrow by issuing its 
own, government guaranteed stock, and 
should be able to borrow on favourable 
terms. It would then re-lend money at 
even more favourable rates, representing 
a Treasury subsidy. The Corporationwould also be able to act as a catalyst to 
private enterprise activities through the 
joint finance of certain agreed urban development 
projects with a small financial 

contribution from the Corporation. Private 
firms could similarly be encouraged! 
to undertake community developmentprojects in return for concessions or purchase 
contracts from the Corporation. 
Thus private enterprise would be encouraged 
to shift its financial and human resources 
to improving the quality of environment 
precisely in those areas where 
improvement is most needed. 

organising urban growth 

The problem of organising growth at the 
periphery of the urban area, and in a 
wide ring around it, is in many ways just 
as acute. The experience of the last two 
decades, but above all that of the last 
few years, has shown us that at present, in 
many ways, it is deficiently handled. 
There seem to be four critical areas 
where action is needed. 

First, overall planning to accommodate . 
the growth has been neglected. Despite a1 
sophisticated and effective planning sys-. 
tern, plans seem to have been made too 
late. Regional strategies were not forth-
corning soon enough, and it took too longto convert them into effective plans at the 
local level. Local government had neither 
the right areas nor the right division of 
functions to manage growth, and this deficiency 
will still be apparent under the 
Tories' local government reform. Secondly, 
as everyone is well aware, the scarcity 
and cost of land has driven house prices 
up. Whatever the cause-and local 
authorities may recriminate with developers 
on it-the situation cries out for 
remedy. Thirdly, too much of the resultant 
housing is still poor in both quantity 
and quality. Both in floor area and in servicing, 
it often compares unfavourably. 
with public rented housing built according 
to Parker Morris standards. This in 
turn, to some degree, reflects the high cost 
of land in the total package. Fourthly, the 
developments are too often badly planned 
and lacking in sound facilities. 

We believe, therefore, that the job of 
handling urban growth cannot be done 
without fundamental changes both in 
local government structure and the man-' 


agement of development land, on which 
we offer specific suggestions below. But 
further, we think that there would be 
merit in providing additional and competitive 
housebuilding capacity in the public 
sector through the means of a national 
House Building Agency, as tentativelysuggested in Labour's Programme for 
Britain. This Agency would be quite distinct 
from the Urban Development Corporation 
that we have proposed earlier ; 
indeed, it might draw some of its finance 
from it. Essentially it would be a public 
sector building corporation competingwith the existing private agencies, and 
perhaps performing a special service for 
the co-operative housing associations 
which-as we later propose-shouldrapidly acquire a major role in the provision 
of owner occupied housing. It 
should have a remit to maintain planning 
standards outside the major growth areas, 
for which we later propose a specialmechanism. 

urban transport 

In general terms the nature of the urban 
transport problem is well known. Car 
ownership, already above 50 per cent of 
households, is expected to rise to 80 percent by the 1980s. As more people own 
cars, they tend to use them for the work 
journey-unless choked off by congestion 
or disincentives, which only apply in the 
city centres to any considerable degree-
and for making many more off peak journeys 
for shopping, recreation and social 
purposes. Public transport cannot compete 
and is caught in a vicious circle of 
rising costs, rising fares and declininglevels of service. Yet, to cope with congestion, 
a bigger and bigger urban road-
building programme is caJied for. At the 
same time, as homes and jobs decentralise 
within the major urban areas, it becomes 
more and more difficult to organise an 
adequate public transport system for a 
dispersed pattern of origins and destina1ions. 


We think that a Labour governmenttransport policy will have to deal simultaneously 
with a number of rather intractable 
results of these trends. One is 

that there will remain a substantial number 
of people without ready access to a 
car, either at all or at most times-the 
old, the young, housewives whose husbands 
use the sole family car to commute, 
those who are unfit or who dislike to 
drive. The other is that in many typicalsituations, it will be more and more 
difficult to provide for their needs while 
providing for the equally substantial number 
who will want to use their cars, quite 
legitimately, for all sorts of purposes ; 
suburb to suburb commuting, weeklyshopping, entertainment and social visits. 
These contradictions will not be resolved 
by any simpliste policy either of massive 
road building or of trying to restrict the 
use of the private car by blanket controls. 
A complex and subtle mixture of policieswill be needed. The central point will be 
to ensure that they improve the standard 
of living of the lower paid-who are, at 
present, the least mobile. 

Instead, we think that urban local authorities 
will need to develop their own policies 
appropriate to their own local needs 
and conditions. The central government 
should however take a lead in offering advice 
and in judging these plans. We think 
that in the inner and more congested 
areas, the need will be to restrict car use 
by high charges either for parking or 
driving, coupled with effectual enforcement 
of regulations, so as to give help to 
the bus-which, in most British cities and 
conurbations, will remain the natural and 
the most economical form of public transport 
for the foreseeable future. This 
means devices like priority for buses on 
city streets ; new investment to providereserved busways in congested areas, on 
the lines of the system already operating 
in Runcorn new town ; provision of bus-
ways as an integral part of urban motorway 
plans ; development of new forms of 
bus service including jitney (mini-) buses 
and dial-a-bus, which has considerable 
possibilities as telephone ownership rises 
to the 70 per cent level. Further, we think 
that it would be justifiable to provide subsidies 
for bus operation (as well as investment 
in facilities) from the proceeds of a 
road pricing system, which we think a 
Labour government should progressively 
introduce, in conjunction with local gov



emment, throughout the larger urban 
areas as an alternative to the present system 
of vehicle and fuel taxes. The need to 
move the buses, as well as to providesegregated routes for heavy goodsvehicles, may justify urban motorwayconstruction in many cities~provided 
also that the use of the private car on 
them can be restrained and regulated. 
These measures will not cope completely 
with the problems caused by the outward 
movement of jobs and people. To a considerable 
degree, these will have to be 
met by intelligent land use planning which 
reconciles the interests of car users and 
non car users. It is equally foolish to 
encourage proliferation of out-of-town 
shopping centres and continued development 
of overgrown, congested HighStreets ; the right answer is intelligentlysited edge-of-town centres, accessible 
both to private car shoppers and to bus 
routes. New concentrations of employment 
and of entertainment need to be designed 
on the same principles-as indeed 
they have, for many years, in Scandinavia. 
But at the same time, it is important to 
accept that in the dispersed world of the 
future, quite radical and perhaps outrageous 
solutions to the problem of personal 
mobility may have to be sought. 
Some observers of the American scene 
have argued that the right policy may be 
to subsidise private transport for low income 
groups; "Cheap Yolks for poorfolks." Certainly, such solutions should 
not be rejected out of hand, though they 
may prove costly. We need to start thinking 
about policies with the needs of 
people in mind, then considering the most 
effective and the most economic way of 
meeting those needs in the world of the 
future. And we need also to think of new 
transport opportunities-whether motorways. 
rapid transit routes or interchanges 
-as positive elements in structure plans, 
triggering off new development and helping 
to shape the future city region. 

the countryside and outdoor 
recreation 

One other area of explosive pressure is 
certainly that of the use of leisure and 
its effect on the land. Despite initiatives 
by successive Labour governments~the 

1949 National Parks Act, the 1968 Countryside 
Act-the overwhelming impression 
is of lost opportunities: in making 
the best use of recreational resources and 
investment ; in co-operation between 
agencies to provide facilities ; and in 
terms of using grant aid positively to 
create more equitable distribution of opportunities. 
In particular, we need to provide 
more consciously for the great mass 
of ordinary people who want to enjoyfairly passive outdoor recreation, and who 
are at present very poorly served. 

To this end, we think that there is an 
overwhelming need to strengthen procedures 
and machinery. We think that 
local authorities should be required to 
provide recreational strategies in conjunction 
with the Countryside Commission 
and other relevant bodies, to form part of 
their structure plans. These should take in 
substantial areas-for instance, the whole 
area around a conurbation-and will, 
therefore, often need to be produced by a 
number of authorities in co-ordination. 
We also think that such strategies should 
consciously aim to compensate for the 
fact that lower income groups are deprived 
of opportunities, by-for instance 
-developing country parks that are 
readily accessible to public transport, 
either existing or planned ; and, in some 
cases, by deliberately developing urban 
parks where these are accessible to deprived 
groups. (It must be faced though 
that in most cases, housing needs may 
need to take top priority in such areas.) 
Additionally, these regional strategiesshould develop a conscious policy towards 
the use of private recreational land, some 
at least of which should probably be 
brought into the public domain through 
the use of management agreements-ifnecessary with compulsory powers. They 
should contain proposals for the use of 
forests and water catchment areas. At 
least, we think that a future Labour government 
should investigate the possibility 
-relevant in this respect as in many other 
aspects of environmental planning-ofmaking private users of open space pay 
the full social cost of the benefit they enjoy, 
the sums so gathered being passed on 
for the benefit of the deprived groups. 
In order to co-ordinate such policies we 


doubt whether present agencies are ade-
quate. The Countryside Commission has 
done an astonishing amount in four yearsof existence with little money and fewer 
powers ; we think that the time is ripe for 
it to have both. We therefore suggest a 
National Recreation and Conservation 
Commission, to be charged with the task 
of reconciling the two tasks of developingrecreational opportunities and conservingthe national heritage. Such a Commission 
would unite most of the present functions 
of the Countryside Commission, the 
Sports Council, the British WaterwaysBoard and perhaps the Tourist Boards. It 
would take over the historic monuments 
division of the Department of the En-
vironment, the new Nature ConservancyCouncil with its responsibility for 
National Nature Reserves and-possibly 
-some of the functions of the ForestryCommission. It would be permitted and 
encouraged to buy, own and operate land 
and buildings for recreational or conserv-
ation purposes, charging for admission 
where appropriate. It could reach man-
agement agreements with owners (with re-
serve compulsory purchase powers) and 
might appropriately take over many of 
the functions of the National Trust in this 
regard. It could itself operate CountryParks as well as facilities in National 
Parks, in addition to financing approved 
projects by local authorities and privateorganisations in these fields. It should 
work with private enterprise in the de-
velopment of new facilities at the edgesof the conurbations, in the countrysideand on the coast. A Labour governmentshould regard the formation of such a 
powerful national agency as first priority 
for new public enterprise in a fast grow-
ing field of demand. 
we have isolated two major sets of 
problems for urban planning: those of 
the inner city, and those of tlie growing 
subu!'ban and exurban periphery. We have 
argued that both need bigger, stronger, 
:::arefully bounded local government units 
:apable of analysing and dealing with 
problems as a whole, and with a secure 
financial base anchored on a wide spec-
31 
trurn of residential, commercial and in-
dustrial rateable units. We believe that the 
recommendations of the Redcliffe Maud 
Commission for the reform of local gov-
ernment in England would have suppliedsuch a system, though we think that it 
was not the best that could have been de-
vised. Equally, we think that the 1972 
Local Government Act is a denial of the 
basic principles on which reform should 
be based. By slavish adherence to ancient 
county lines, it fails to create unified areas 
for structure planning where these are 
most urgently needed. And, by cuttingback the boundaries of the metropolitan 
areas to conform narrowly to the built up 
areas of the conurbations, it denies those 
authorities the power to meet their hous-
ing and their financial problems by draw-
ing on the capacities of the rapidly grow-
ing suburban areas which are inexorably 
united, in a functional sense, with the 
conurbations. 
We think, therefore, that a first priority 
for a Labour government must be to sub-
stantially amend, or to replace, the 
disastrous 1972 Act. Minimally, it should 
modify the Act in three ways. First, the 
new metropolitan counties should be sub-
stantially enlarged to make them genuinecity regions, as Redcliffe Maud proposed : 
this is particularly important for the West 
Midlands, Selnec and Merseyside and 
highly desirable for London. Secondly, an 
adequate structure must be created for 
rapidly growing city regions, such as 
Portsmouth-Southampton and Reading-
Wokingham-Aldershot-Basingstoke. In 
some of these cases, a single county 
authority may be appropriate, on the lines 
of the new county of A von (one of the 
few useful reforms in the 1972 Act). In 
others, a new metropolitan structure maybe more appropriate. Thirdly, there should 
be a reallocation of powers, to ensure 
that county authorities have reserve 
powers to implement their structure plan 
proposals through effective local and 
action area plans where district councils 
fail to exercise their own powers with 
due diligence. Details of these changes 
would require careful further study before 
Labour's arrival back in office. 
But these modifications would provide a 
doubt whether present agencies are ade-
quate. The Countryside Commission has 
done an astonishing amount in four yearsof existence with little money and fewer 
powers ; we think that the time is ripe for 
it to have both. We therefore suggest a 
National Recreation and Conservation 
Commission, to be charged with the task 
of reconciling the two tasks of developingrecreational opportunities and conservingthe national heritage. Such a Commission 
would unite most of the present functions 
of the Countryside Commission, the 
Sports Council, the British WaterwaysBoard and perhaps the Tourist Boards. It 
would take over the historic monuments 
division of the Department of the En-
vironment, the new Nature ConservancyCouncil with its responsibility for 
National Nature Reserves and-possibly 
-some of the functions of the ForestryCommission. It would be permitted and 
encouraged to buy, own and operate land 
and buildings for recreational or conserv-
ation purposes, charging for admission 
where appropriate. It could reach man-
agement agreements with owners (with re-
serve compulsory purchase powers) and 
might appropriately take over many of 
the functions of the National Trust in this 
regard. It could itself operate CountryParks as well as facilities in National 
Parks, in addition to financing approved 
projects by local authorities and privateorganisations in these fields. It should 
work with private enterprise in the de-
velopment of new facilities at the edgesof the conurbations, in the countrysideand on the coast. A Labour governmentshould regard the formation of such a 
powerful national agency as first priority 
for new public enterprise in a fast grow-
ing field of demand. 
we have isolated two major sets of 
problems for urban planning: those of 
the inner city, and those of tlie growing 
subu!'ban and exurban periphery. We have 
argued that both need bigger, stronger, 
:::arefully bounded local government units 
:apable of analysing and dealing with 
problems as a whole, and with a secure 
financial base anchored on a wide spec-
31 
trurn of residential, commercial and in-
dustrial rateable units. We believe that the 
recommendations of the Redcliffe Maud 
Commission for the reform of local gov-
ernment in England would have suppliedsuch a system, though we think that it 
was not the best that could have been de-
vised. Equally, we think that the 1972 
Local Government Act is a denial of the 
basic principles on which reform should 
be based. By slavish adherence to ancient 
county lines, it fails to create unified areas 
for structure planning where these are 
most urgently needed. And, by cuttingback the boundaries of the metropolitan 
areas to conform narrowly to the built up 
areas of the conurbations, it denies those 
authorities the power to meet their hous-
ing and their financial problems by draw-
ing on the capacities of the rapidly grow-
ing suburban areas which are inexorably 
united, in a functional sense, with the 
conurbations. 
We think, therefore, that a first priority 
for a Labour government must be to sub-
stantially amend, or to replace, the 
disastrous 1972 Act. Minimally, it should 
modify the Act in three ways. First, the 
new metropolitan counties should be sub-
stantially enlarged to make them genuinecity regions, as Redcliffe Maud proposed : 
this is particularly important for the West 
Midlands, Selnec and Merseyside and 
highly desirable for London. Secondly, an 
adequate structure must be created for 
rapidly growing city regions, such as 
Portsmouth-Southampton and Reading-
Wokingham-Aldershot-Basingstoke. In 
some of these cases, a single county 
authority may be appropriate, on the lines 
of the new county of A von (one of the 
few useful reforms in the 1972 Act). In 
others, a new metropolitan structure maybe more appropriate. Thirdly, there should 
be a reallocation of powers, to ensure 
that county authorities have reserve 
powers to implement their structure plan 
proposals through effective local and 
action area plans where district councils 
fail to exercise their own powers with 
due diligence. Details of these changes 
would require careful further study before 
Labour's arrival back in office. 
But these modifications would provide a 

second-best solution. We think that subject 
to the recommendations of the Commission 
on the Constitution-which are 
shortly expected-there would be greater 
merit in a total new reform incorporating 
both regional and local government in 
England. (Scotland and Wales represent 
special cases because they must be treated 
as national units and because the local 
government reform proposals take differ-
ent-and, in the case of Scotland, a 
superior-form there.) Under such a root 
and branch reform, top-tier planningfunctions-including some functions now 
performed by regional branches of central 
government-together with some educational 
and social service functions-would 
go to new regional bodies, ten to fifteen 
in number, corresponding roughly to Economic 
Planning Regions but in some cases 
rather smaller. (fhe new Regional Water 
Authorities, with amendments in some 
cases, could provide a basis.) Lower tier 
most purpose authorities, responsible for 
all the more personal services, would be 
set up on the city region principle for 
areas with populations of between 150,(100and 400,000 (approximately) depending 
on the density of the local population. 
There might be between 100 and 140 of 
such districts for England as a whole. 

Such a reform would achieve manyworthy objectives. It would meet the long-
felt del)1and for some kind of regionalismand regional devolution from Whitehall. 
It would guarantee the continuous monitoring 
and updating of regional strategies, 
with an assurance that changes could be 
effectuated. It would deal more adequatelywith problems of large city regions. And 
it would establish basic most-purposelocal government units which were both 
reasonably local and reasonably efficient. 
We commend it to a future Laobour government. 
and we are disturbed that in the 
Green Paper the Party are apparentlythinking only of minor modification to 
boundaries and powers within the framework 
of the 1972 Act. Tf Labour do go 
for the bold solution. it will again be imperative 
for a detailed blueprint to he 
drawn up well in advance of entry into 
office. As a starting point, we commend 
the Fabian Society's evidence to the 
Crowther Commission, which suggested 

an elective bicameral council at regionallevel, one chamber to be drawn from 
regional MPs, the other to be elected indirectly 
from local government representatives 
in the region (People, participation 
and government, Fabian research series 
293). 

land 

The disgrace of rampant speculation and 
escalating house prices is one of the majorfailures of the present Tory administration. 
The high price and general scarcity 
of building land is not merely putting new 
houses for sale beyond the reach of the 
majority of our people; it is contributing 
to a progressive deterioration of 
standards in the private housing sector, 
which will surely produce the slums of 
the next generation. 

It is a national scandal, and it could well 
bring down the present government'sdownfall at the next election-as it did 
in 1964. Now as then, we need a solution 
to the problem. Labour's Programme for 
Britain does not provide one, but promises 
that one is on the way. It must grapplewith the central problem of the ownership, 
control and release of building land 
-not merely with the peripheral issue of 
the gains from speculation in land (which 
can easily be dealt with through capitalgains tax, perhaps at a special rate, or 
through more effective rating revaluations). 
Above all, it must be ready in detail 
for early implementation. And-in ,
contradistinction to the Land Commission 
Act of 1967-it must be cast in such 
a form that a subsequent Tory government 
will not be able, or will not want, to I unscramble it. 

Essentially, as the Uthwatt Committee 
saw as long ago as 1942. there are two 
sides to the problem. One is already de-j 
velooed land-the cost of which is ab-· 
surdly and quite unnaturally high when 
public authorities want it for social purposes 
such as housing or schools. All our 
major conurbations and freestanding cities 
have a surprisingly large amount of derelict 
land. left vacant by economic change: 
industrial areas deserted in the outward · 


move of industry, surplus railway and 
dock and canal land. Just how large a 
proportion of the total is represented by 
such areas is only just becoming clear, 
due to more effective land use censuses. 
Yet when local authorities try to buy upthis land, they find the price quite beyond 
their needs. The reason is an anomaly in 
the compensation laws, which values 
land for compulsory purchase as if it 
were sold by a willing seller to a willing 
buyer in its former use-a use which demonstrably 
is no longer relevant. This law 
is bad and it needs changing. Henceforth, 
valuation should be based on the free 
market value of the land in its future 
intended use-but taking full account of 
what the authority is doing over the entire 
urban area. For if the local authority 
were able to develop all this land for 
housing, it would result in a quite sudden 
addition to housing stocks-perhaps half 
a million new dwellings in London alone. 
And the total value of the land for housing 
would be reduced by the fact of this 
windfall gain in supply. It is right that 
the compensation code should take 
account of this fact, and a Labour government 
should see that it does. For the 
longer run, we think that there would be 
great merit in a return to the notion of 
the Uthwatt committee : that of putting a 
life on all buildings, perhaps starting with 
those over a certain age. This life would 
determine the value for public acquisition 
purposes. and at the end of the life the 
site would be purchaseable at bare site 
value ; at earlier points the compensation 
would be fixed by the life expectancy of 
the building. This measure would achieve 
nothing in the short run, but after ten 
years or so it would begin to become very 
beneficial to public authorities. There are 
obvious complications regarding historic 
buildings and all buildings in conservation 
areas, where there would be a danger 
of planning blight ; these would need to 
be taken care of by special provisions. 
But overall, we think that the scheme has 
merit. 

The bigger problem though is new land nreviouslv 
undeveloped areas at the 
·fringes of conurbations and cities, or bevond. 
It is here that speculative fortunes 
have been made due to changes in the de


velopment plan, while land shown for development 
in the plan still remains withdrawn 
from the developer. Here, we agree 
with Labour's Programme for Britain that 
public control over the land will be necessary. 
The question is what form it should 
take. 

We see two possible approaches. One is 
the proposal for state purchase of all development 
rights in the country at an 
equal, average price. This would create 
a vested interest in mainta·ining the solution 
on the part of all the owners-the 
great majority in the country as a whole 
-who would have enjoyed a payment in 
excess of what they could otherwise have 
expected ; so it would be difficult to unscramble. 
The people who would lose, on 
the other band, would form a minority of 
landowners ; and most of these would represent 
big owners and speculators.
Insofar as they were genuine landowners 
and farmers, they would have lost nothing 
anyway. Overwhelmingly, it would be the 
speculators who would lose while the 
community as a whole gained. 

Nevertheless, it should not be denied that 
there are snags in this scheme. Undoubtedly, 
there would be some cases of 
real injustice where small owners had 
paid over the odds for land and then 
found it was taken away at a fraction of 
what they had paid ; and the Tory presswill not be slow to exploit such cases to 
the hilt. And it would always be open to 
a subsequent Tory government to regardthe payments to owners as a bonus which 
could be forgotten ; they could allow 
owners to buy their development rights 
back at what they had been paid, and the 
speculators would not be slow to seize the 
opportunity. Such a resale of developmentrights would be an act of gross political 
cynicism, but on the past record of Tory 
governments-in 1953 as again in 1970it 
is unfortunately more than likely. 

Therefore, we see great merit in an attack 
through an extension of the well -tried new 
towns mechanism. Zones of major urban 
growth would be designated around the 
conurbations and cities-as, for instance,
in the major and medium growth areas 
designated in the Strategic Plan for the 


South East. The designations would preferably 
take place when the governmentapproved such strategic regional plans, 
and in any event before preparation of a 
structure plan. Within such designated 
areas, Development Corporations would 
be set up on the new towns model. But 
it would be imperative to bring the local 
authorities into an active role within these 
corporations. Indeed, in some cases-
where the whole of a development is within 
a single planning authority-it may be 
appropriate for that authority to set up 
a development corporation. (Such a 
mechanism may also be appropriate for 
major redevelopment within urban areas 
like London's dockland.) Elsewhere, there 
should be a mixed corporation with central 
and local nominees. Local planning 
officers should be jointly involved in 
structure planning for the area-as will 
be the case, already, in the central Lancashire 
new town. And local ratepayersshould share in the benefits from commercial 
and other development, together 
with the general taxpayer who will have 
contributed some of the initial fundirg.
Our urban development corporation, proposed 
earlier, will in addition have an 
active role to play in financing. 

The existing law appears to allow already 
for the sort of new style development corporation 
we have in mind. But we think 
that it will be imperative for a future 
Labour government to take a fresh look 
at the compensation procedures for new 
towns. At present, the effect of legislationpassed by Tory governments in the late 
1950s and early 1960s is that a new town 
development corporation gets relativelylittle of the financial gain that results from 
its own operations in building up the 
town. Where the whole decision to develop 
is a public one. as in the new towns, 
there is really no justification for the landowner 
enjoying windfall gains at the community's 
expense ; and a change in the 
law is needed. 

This achieved, the proposed development 
corporations would buy land in their designated 
areas at little more than existing 
use value. They would then lease it-
sometimes on very long leases, giving the 
effect of freehold rights-to appropriate 

residential or commercial developers.
Here, we think it important that a large 
proportion of the housing land be leased 
to co-operative housing associations of 
the form common in most other European 
countries, but still unfamiliar in Britain. 
The houses built by these societies 
would be owned by members just as if 
they were ordinary owner occupiers, save 
that if they left they would be under an 
obligation to return their home to the 
society at a reasonable price, the profitpassing to the association. It should be the 
aim of a future Labour government to 
ensure that as soon as possible, a substantial 
part of the total housing pro-
gramme is provided by such Associations, 
which would be under an obligation to 
plough profits back for the benefit of 
their members. Such a step, coupled with 
the release of land by the developmentcorporations, would itself go far to ending 
the present speculative orgy in housing 
and in housing land. But it is imperative 
that the details be worked out verycarefully for implementation immediately 
Labour arrive in office. 

This solution, we believe, would not 
readily be scrapped by a future Tory administration. 
If effectively carried through 
while Labour were in office, it would gain 
too many powerful vested interests in 
support : the local authorities (who would 
stand powerfully to gain from the arrangements), 
the co-operatives and their members. 
Once it became effective, the Development 
Corporations could work to 
buy up land well in advance of actual 
needs-as has long been done in Sweden 
by the major municipalities, with salutary 
results. Nevertheless, we think that it 
should be supplemented by several other 
reforms, all desirable in themselves and 
long overdue. A life should be put on all 
planning permissions, so as to stop them 
being traded as commodities ; normally 
this could be as short as one year. All 
buildings and all land should be fullyrated at current values-including agricultural 
land, whose exemption has long 
been a grotesque and indefensible anomaly. 
And, as Labour propose in its pro-
gramme, there should be a ceiling on tax 
relief for mortgage purposes. Certainly it 
should exclude the urtax payer and the 


second home owner. In fact, we see merit 
in limiting the relief to the value of the 
average public sector dwelling in the local 
area concerned. The present tax relief 
rules, coupled with general inflation and 
land shortage, are one of the immediate 
causes of the price escalation ; they need 
to be changed. 

the quality of the 
environment 

Labour's Programme for Britain says surprisingly 
little about the quality of the environment-
surprisingly, that is, in view 
of the current public debate. But in this 
it may merely show an acute sense of 
political priorities. There is no denyingthat the environmentalist movement is 
overwhelmingly middle class and, in international 
terms, a concern of the affluent. 
There is a counter argument that many 
measures to improve the quality of environment 
are not things that must be 
achieved to save the world from ecological 
disaster, but rather are options to 
which a price tag is attached. The control 
of water and air pollution, the control of 
car exhaust emissions, better standards of 
noise and visual intrusion for traffic in 
cities-all these will be achieved at a price, 
and it is important to see that this price 
is paid by those sections of the community 
able to do so. In other words, 
there is a danger that the cost of improving 
environment may be greater inequality 
of income. 

There is no need for this to be the case ; 
but it should be an aim of Labour policyfor the environment to ensure that it is 
not. This principle has two implications. 
First, that in general the costs of improving 
environment should be borne publicly 
through taxation rather than privately by 
the producer (who, in many cases, will 
simply pass the costs on to the consumer).
Secondly, that within the public sector 
the costs should be borne by taxes which 
are progressive in their incidence ; that is, 
either direct taxes or by indirect taxes on 
luxury items. Local rates, or general indirect 
taxes (such as VAT) may be quite 
pernicious in this respect because they 
may fall quite heavily on the poor. Car 
exhaust standards are a good example of 

the principle in practice (and the same applies, 
for instance, to improved safety 
measures on cars such as passive restraint 
devices, shock absorbing devices and 
laminated glass). All these have a cost and 
if they are merely introduced by regulation, 
they will be embodied in a higherprice for the car. This will make it more 
difficult for middle and low income 
groups to own and operate cars, and restrict 
their range of economic and social 
opportunity. (If it is argued that publictransport should be provided instead, the 
answer-already put in this section-is 
that in many dispersed areas this is not a 
feasible solution.) The right answer in this 
case would be public subsidy for the devices, 
to be met out of progressive taxation. 
If however the general quality of 
cars could be improved by the same 
means, so that their rate of obsolescence 
was slower, that might result in an actual 
cheapening of their cost. 

In general, always subject to this rule, 
there are two approaches to the control 
of pollution : taxation and control. We 
think that in general control, plus selective 
subsidy, is the better policy. Thus we 
are in favour of higher standards to be 
introduced at the earliest possible date, 
first for car emissions and noise, then extending 
to other areas (for instance packaged 
materials). The precise financial burden 
in each case would need to be based 
on a careful analysis of the effect if the 
consumer were compelled to bear the 
whole impact. Public authorities should 
receive subsidies for installing complete 
waste processing plants and constructing 
sewage treatment plants. There should be 
a determined effort to obtain international 
agreement on standards, especially among 
the developed nations, both on a worldwide 
scale (through the UN) and within 
Europe. 

Taxation of pollution is the alternative. It 
should be based on the general principle 
that people should pay the full social costs 
of their decisions. This principle of course 
extends outside the environmental field, 
and we have already suggested that it 
should apply to the control of traffic congestion, 
for instance. It may well be 
argued that in practice it is exceedingly 


3fi 

difficult or impossible to calculate social 
costs in any particular case ; nevertheless, 
even an approximate allowance is better 
than none. The difficulty will be to ensure 
that taxes are not passed on to low income 
consumers. This, of course, would 
be easier if general price controls were in 
force, as proposed in Labour's Pro-
gramme for Britain. In any event, the 
aim of the taxation system would be 
frankly to provide a disincentive : the 
assumption should be that those paying 
the tax will speedily work to cut the pollution. 


We think that responsibility for control, 
together with monitoring and research, 
plus the duty to report on recommended 
changes in the tax structure, should be 
given to a new agency-the pollution control 
service-as Jeremy Bray recommended 
in Politics and the environment, 
(Fabian tract 412). The existing Alkali 
Inspectorate should be reconstituted to 
form its nucleus. In many cases its duties 
could be appropriately devolved to local 
bodies-to the local authorities for air 
pollution or to the Regional Water 
Authorities for water pollution, for instance. 
But it should have a statutoryduty to monitor the performance of these 
authorities and reserve powers of implementation 
in the event of failure to act 
effectively. 


8. science policy 
science policy task force report 


There is a need for more research and 
more effective research with clearly defined 
social and economic purposes. Following 
the reaction against military and 
prestige science and technology, and 
against the naive view that more research 
means more economic growth, the use of 
science for public welfare has not been 
fully realised. 

Christopher Freeman and others (Thegoals of R & Din the 1970s, Science Studies 
1, 1971) describe the position: "The decade 
which followed the Korean War was a 
period of mushroom growth of science. 
The political climate was exceptionallyfavourable following the spectacularachievement of science and technologyduring the Second World War. The 
military and political tensions of the ' cold 
war ' created a continuing demand for 
intensive weapons development pro-
grammes and spectacular technologicalcompetition. The rate of increase of 
expenditure on military, space and nuclear 
R & D in the 1950s was around 20 per cent 
per annum. But in addition to ' bigscience ' and ' big technology,' most other 
branches of scientific research also benefited 
from the general wave of expansion.
The massive increase in public expenditure 
brought with it many new government 
organisations of advice and control, 
and new international scientific organisations 
both for research and for exchangeof views and information. Although the 
growth of ' big science ' and ' big technology 
' was initially concentrated in the 
United States and the Soviet Union, on a 
smaller scale it spread to West European 
countries and set the general tone and 
fashion for world science and technology. 

"Yet the last few years have seen a widespread 
loss of confidence and hesitancy 
in the approach to science and technology 
in many countries. In most of them the 
' rate of growth of public expenditure on 
science and technology has slowed down, 
and in some cases there has actually been 
a cutback in real terms since salaries and 
the prices of other inputs have risen more 
rapidly than outlays. While this partly
reflects general problems of the growth 
of public expenditure, it is also true that a 
more sceptical attitude to the claims of 


science and technology is increasinglyprevalent. Old doubts and suspicions about 
the supposed benefits of technical progress 
have become much more widespread.
While often based on irrational fears and 
ignorance, and on confusion between 
science and its applications, those doubts 
also reflect very genuine concern about the 
unforeseen effects of new discoveries and 
new technologies on human beings and 
their environment. Sociologically, an 
extremely significant and interestingchange has occurred. Whereas traditionally 
the older and more conservative 
elements in society have been the least 
sympathetic to the claims of science, a 
new development has been the growingsuspicion and hostility to technology from 
younger and more radical sections of the 
community. 

"The 'Frankenstein' view, according to 
which science is a monster which will 
devour its own creators, has always been 
latent in human society, going back to the 
myth of Pandora's Box and beyond. It has 
been opposed by the Promethean view of 
knowledge as a liberating force which can 
lighten man's labour and eliminate the 
scourges of disease and poverty. Not surprisingly, 
some recent developments in 
technoloogy have given renewed currency 
to the " Frankenstein " approach. Few 
can contemplate the potential effects of 
modern military technology with equanimity. 
The horrifying possibilities of some 
techniques of mind manipulation, eugenics 
and organised repression make the nightmares 
of Orwell, Huxley and Zamyatin 
uncomfortably realistic. Even the 'normal 
' use of civil technology in some 
urban environments has given rise to 
serious doubts and misgivings about man's 
capacity to control and organise his 
incentions satisfactorily. 

" Scientists and technologists often take 
refuge in the attitude of the ' neutrality'of science. According to this view, they 
cannot be held responsible for the abuse 
and misuse of scientific knowledge.
Science as such is ethically neutral and 
may be used for good or evil, depending 
upon political circumstances. While there 
is some justice in this defensive reaction, 
it is vulnerable to the counter criticism of 


38 
such pessimists as Ellul and McDermott, 
that in many cases new scientific and 
technological developments may alreadytend to pre-empt the political decision 
making process. The disenfranchisement 
of the technologically illiterate may be 
far more effective than any previous 
systems of limitation of the franchise. 
The sense of alienation from control of 
the trend of evolution of technology and 
the urban environment, which is wide-
spread in industrialized societies, maywell be related to this " gap " in under-
standing. While the forms of politicaldemocracy are certainly present alongwith many opportunities for involvement,
there is nevertheless a widespread fear 
that technology has become an uncon-
trolled Juggernaut, which is sweepinghuman society along in its wake. Instead 
of technology serving human beings, it 
sometimes appears to be the other wayabout. This fear is reinforced rather than 
reduced by the frequent affirmation that 
' you can't stop technical progress any-
way.' 
" A fairly natural and widespread reaction 
of scientists and technologists to the more 
ignorant kinds of criticism is to retreat 
into ' isolationism ' and to disclaim re-
sponsibility for the way in which society 
uses or abuses science. While this reaction 
is quite understandable, it is likely to 
exacerbate rather than to resolve the 
problem. The scientific community has, 
of course, the right and the duty to upholdthe interests and values of science against 
the claims of the state when these conflict. 
The values include free publication and 
criticism and the traditional internation-
alism of scientists. But scientists' partici-
pation is also essential in devising satis-
factory social techniques for the respon-
sible use of science and technology. 
"Science cannot be divorced from its social 
implications and applications, and nor can 
scientists escape their individual and social 
responsibilities. Science and technologyare inextricably involved with social goals 
and public policy. The problem is not one 
which can be resolved by divorce, still less 
by any form of technocracy, but only by a 
constant process of adaptation and 
response by the science and technology 
system to changing social values and 
priorities. As citizens, scientists and tech-
nologists take part along with everyon 
else in the formulation of these values, 
but they have a unique role in the realiza-
tion of the new social priorities which are. 
emerging. It is certain that the problems 
of environmental pollution, of under-
development and of controlled disarma-
ment cannot be resolved without the active 
participation of the scientific community, 
or without a policy for science and 
technology. 
" Some governments are prepared to think 
the unthinkable about nuclear war or the 
population explosion, but not yet about 
peace-keeping technologies, or environ-
mental and population control policies.
Whilst it is recognised in theory that man-
kind is coming to the end of the period of 
'free fall', in relation to our global , 
environment and the world's natural re-
sources, we are far from prepared to face 
up to the technological and social implica-
tions. These problems are not so long-term 
that they can be constantly shelved until 
it is too late. The business of research is 
with the long-term future par excellence, 
and the direction of our research today 
will determine in large measure the kind 
of future which is possible for the next 
generation. One of the major challengesof the 1970s stems from our failure to 
use the promise of science to anticipateand meet the completely new situation 
confronting mankind at the end of ' free 
fall.' This is an extremely difficult chal-
lenge, and nothing is gained by over-
simplifying the social problems involved." 
government research 
The Tory Government has recently de-· 
clared its policy on the organisation of 
government research in a White Paper, 
following the Rothschild and Dainton 
reports. The position cannot be allowed 
to rest there. 
We are not opposed to a strong user 
influence in research, nor to the principle 
of a " customer-contractor " relationshipwith government the customer where this 
is appropriate. The effectiveness of the 
38 
such pessimists as Ellul and McDermott, 
that in many cases new scientific and 
technological developments may alreadytend to pre-empt the political decision 
making process. The disenfranchisement 
of the technologically illiterate may be 
far more effective than any previous 
systems of limitation of the franchise. 
The sense of alienation from control of 
the trend of evolution of technology and 
the urban environment, which is wide-
spread in industrialized societies, maywell be related to this " gap " in under-
standing. While the forms of politicaldemocracy are certainly present alongwith many opportunities for involvement,
there is nevertheless a widespread fear 
that technology has become an uncon-
trolled Juggernaut, which is sweepinghuman society along in its wake. Instead 
of technology serving human beings, it 
sometimes appears to be the other wayabout. This fear is reinforced rather than 
reduced by the frequent affirmation that 
' you can't stop technical progress any-
way.' 
" A fairly natural and widespread reaction 
of scientists and technologists to the more 
ignorant kinds of criticism is to retreat 
into ' isolationism ' and to disclaim re-
sponsibility for the way in which society 
uses or abuses science. While this reaction 
is quite understandable, it is likely to 
exacerbate rather than to resolve the 
problem. The scientific community has, 
of course, the right and the duty to upholdthe interests and values of science against 
the claims of the state when these conflict. 
The values include free publication and 
criticism and the traditional internation-
alism of scientists. But scientists' partici-
pation is also essential in devising satis-
factory social techniques for the respon-
sible use of science and technology. 
"Science cannot be divorced from its social 
implications and applications, and nor can 
scientists escape their individual and social 
responsibilities. Science and technologyare inextricably involved with social goals 
and public policy. The problem is not one 
which can be resolved by divorce, still less 
by any form of technocracy, but only by a 
constant process of adaptation and 
response by the science and technology 
system to changing social values and 
priorities. As citizens, scientists and tech-
nologists take part along with everyon 
else in the formulation of these values, 
but they have a unique role in the realiza-
tion of the new social priorities which are. 
emerging. It is certain that the problems 
of environmental pollution, of under-
development and of controlled disarma-
ment cannot be resolved without the active 
participation of the scientific community, 
or without a policy for science and 
technology. 
" Some governments are prepared to think 
the unthinkable about nuclear war or the 
population explosion, but not yet about 
peace-keeping technologies, or environ-
mental and population control policies.
Whilst it is recognised in theory that man-
kind is coming to the end of the period of 
'free fall', in relation to our global , 
environment and the world's natural re-
sources, we are far from prepared to face 
up to the technological and social implica-
tions. These problems are not so long-term 
that they can be constantly shelved until 
it is too late. The business of research is 
with the long-term future par excellence, 
and the direction of our research today 
will determine in large measure the kind 
of future which is possible for the next 
generation. One of the major challengesof the 1970s stems from our failure to 
use the promise of science to anticipateand meet the completely new situation 
confronting mankind at the end of ' free 
fall.' This is an extremely difficult chal-
lenge, and nothing is gained by over-
simplifying the social problems involved." 
government research 
The Tory Government has recently de-· 
clared its policy on the organisation of 
government research in a White Paper, 
following the Rothschild and Dainton 
reports. The position cannot be allowed 
to rest there. 
We are not opposed to a strong user 
influence in research, nor to the principle 
of a " customer-contractor " relationshipwith government the customer where this 
is appropriate. The effectiveness of the 

Government's civil research must dependheavily upon the discussion and consultation 
with all concerned, both on current research 
and future programmes. The choice 
of the most fruitful research programmes, 
taking into account both scientific and 
technical possibilities and the need for contributions 
to medical, environmental, social 
· and economic problems require a range of 
talents, not to be found exclusively within 
government departments. The Requirements 
Board proposed in the Department 
of Trade and Industry must be made 
effective, and similar boards set up for 
the Department of the Environment including 
representatives from local authorities, 
trade unions and environmental 
groups, and for the Department of Health 
and Social Security including representatives 
from the health service, social 
workers, local authorities, and trade 

' unions. 

Furthermore the Research Councils should 
' have not only the right but the duty to 
review research needs in their field and 
inform the public of the research they are 
required to do by the Government and 
the research they are not required to do 


. ' but believe should command a highpriority. To help the interested and informed 
public, Research Councils should 
explain their own research in the context 
of all the research in progress in their own 
fields and in particular review and comment 
upon research undertaken by government 
departments and in governmentestablishments. The Research Councils 
should take the initiative in promoting 
discussions about and recommendingpriorities for research, rather than act 
primarily as passive bodies giving and 
refusing grants which have been proposed 
from elsewhere. 

To transfer the £20 million research expenditure 
proposed from the control of 
Research Councils to departments in three 
years, while limiting any reduction of 
payments to 10 per cent per annum, will 
mean that either departments will have to 
come up very quickly with contracts, or 
Research Council work will continue much 
as before, though nominally under departmental 
sponsorship. Neither possibility is 
desirable. Chief Scientists and the depart


ments to which they belong should be able 
to exercise effective, competent and acceptable 
control of the work for which they 
are nominally responsible. It would be 
better if the expenditure figures proposed 
were treated as guidelines to be achieved 
or not, or possibly exceeded, depending 
on how fruitful the customer-contractor 
relationship proves to be. 

The demand for applied research from 
government departments should be substantially 
higher than that part of the 
Research Council budgets the government 
proposes to transfer. The range of questions 
about social, economic and technological 
matters of importance to societyand requiring research is widening rapidly, 
and the number of capable and experienced 
research workers available is increasing. 
If the volume of socially and 
economically merited research does not 
increase then we would question the competence 
of the potential sponsors, or the 
framework in which they work. 

research with social 
objectives 

The Labour Party should be particularlyconcerned with promoting the welfare, in 
the broadest sense, of the less privileged 
majority of the population. This majority 
is concerned with homes and their surroundings, 
health, education of children, 
wages, standard of living, working environment 
and public amenities. It is 
those components of a science policy that 
can contribute to these things that ordinarypeople value that should, therefore, be 
promoted by the Labour Party. 

To this end a Labour government should : 

1. Support and expand health services 
research aimed at improving the humanity 
efficacy and efficiency of the treatment 
and care of patients by the NHS. 
2. Place a much greater emphasis on the 
prevention of mental and physical handicap 
in medical research programmes. 
3. Promote more health services research 
aimed at the humanity, efficacy and 
efficiency of both the treatment and care 

of mentally handicapped or mentally sick 
persons. 

4. Give greater support for research aimed 
at improving the specialised educational 
facilities needed for handicapped children. 
5. Promote an expansion of child development 
research aimed at a better understanding 
of the development of the normal 
child. 
6. Promote more research into normal 
aspects of marriage, kinship, and the 
nuclear family so that social legislation 
can take into account normal as well as 
deviant behaviour. 
7. Promote more research on employment, 
employability and retraining with particular 
reference to regional employment 
problems. 
8. Stage an inquiry into adolescents' 
problems in transferring from school to 
employment. 
9. Seek to ensure that there is much more 
stress on health education at all levels of 
the educational system including colleges 
of education. 
10. Promote research into the prevention 
of accidents in the home, on the roads and 
in working places and into post-accident 
treatment. 
11. Promote more research aimed at protecting 
the public against the ingestion or 
inhalation of harmful substances including 
environmental pollutants. 
research with economic 
objectives 

While there is certainly no automatic 
relationship between money spent on research 
and economic growth, it is equallycertain that economic growth does not 
take place without changing the technology 
of production and services, and 
that technological change itself produces 
new economic, social and environmental 
problems. It is therefore the more necessary 
to keep research and development 
for economic purposes and production 

technology under close review. Each sectOJ 
of industry should be examined to se~ 
how its technology and prospective development 
compares with competitor~ 
overseas and with the best technolog;
available. Government in consultation 
with industry and the trade unions may 
then make strategic judgments abou1 
directions of development to be encouraged. 
These will not be in prestige nor 
even necessarily in technologically advanced 
directions. 

The weight of government support in 
research and development and in economic 
influences would then be channelled in 
these directions. This will require a continuing 
review of different industries and 
of different firms in each industry bygovernment agencies in co-operation with 
the industries and firms themselves. 

The purpose of this review would not be 
merely to maximise economic growth, bu1 
to anticipate and avert or provide for the 
human, social and environmental effects. 
This may mean planning for increased 
leisure, for a more appropriate occupational 
mix, for economy in the use ol 
specific resources, for reduced environmental 
effects and so on. It will certain))' 
mean looking at the research and development 
needed in support of world development 
and the developing countries, with 
research and development forming an 
important part of overseas aid. So the 
review should cover industry as a whole. 
and be set in proper relationship with 
other government activities including par-: 
ticularly the management of the economy. 

Most of the actual research and develop-1 ment for economic purposes should, of 11course, be conducted within the national-1ised or private enterprises concerned. ThE-, 
conduct and efficiency of such research I 
could only be enhanced by the type of1 1 
review and support suggested. 

research on system and 
environmental problems 

Increasing awareness of the impact of i 
social, technical and economic develop-c 
ments upon each other has generated 1search in studying their interactiom ~ 


systematically with a view to shaping them 
in the interests of society, or at least preventing 
them wreaking disaster_ One group 
of interacting problems -population,
economic growth, food, non-renewable 
resources, pollution and ecology-hasattracted particular attention. It can be 
asked whether developments in society 
can be studied more systematically, and if 
so, how. The possibilities of human 
achievement and disaster are increasing,
these are tools of analysis which have not 
been used, and they do produce significant 
results. 

Many contemporary problems are concerned 
with the quality or composition of 
economic activity rather than its total. 
But since the basic problems of employment, 
the balance of payments, and inflation 
still remain, the management of the 
economy as a whole can only be ignored 
at the cost of introducing possibly more 
grievous problems than local environmental 
or resource policies are intended 
to cure. The management of the economy, 
together with international trade and the 
international monetary system are thus an 
integral part of any socio-economic policy 
or model system. They do not, however, 
on their own, provide the links needed 
with and between the quality of economic 
activity as manifest in social policies, the 
impact on the environment, the use of 
resources and the technology of society. 

To provide these links, a central part of 
any policy or model system must deal 
with the regional, industry and occupational 
micro-structure of the economy.
This central part of the model system 
cannot be a single model, nor indeed 
system of models, because of its sheer 
size. It has to be an adaptive process. This 
systems complex, or adaptive process, at 
the centre of any model system would 
have links to the management of the 
economy as a whole, international trade, 
commodity and resource supply, research 
and development, ecological developments, 
food supply, the built environment, 
and population trends. Its development is 
initially a matter of developing methods 
·of analysis and adaptive control, which, 
to be effective, would have to be taken up 
by many agents, in a more or less coherent 

system if designed by a government but 
unless or until that happens, in a rather 
haphazard development. In any case, preliminary 
work is required on methods. 

Each of the problem areas will warrant its 
own model or system of models at the 
level of national economies as large as 
that of the UK. A number of models have 
been made of the UK economy, and 
models could be made of the UK element 
in the international monetary system and 
international trade. Official forecasts using 
a model are made of population. Models 
of the supply and demand for major and 
strategic commodities, and for food, 
present no particular conceptual difficulties. 
The built environment is a field of 
elaborate model building which has, however, 
concentrated far more on the purposeserved and the land used rather than on 
the other resources used. Also the dynamic 
character of the planning and design of 
the built environment has not been highly 
developed even by comparison with the 
treatment of dynamics in economics. 

The modelling of research and development 
and technological change is a 
peculiarly difficult area particularly important 
for the longer term. There are 
many conceptual difficulties, and developments 
in methodology in dealing with 
research and development are needed in 
many directions. Any research and development 
model is necessarily linked 
closely with the other problem areas, and 
part of the difficulty in work on research 
and development models or technologicalforecasting is the Jack of models and even 
of definition in their neighbouring problem 

areas. 

Ecology is a long way from producing any 
kind of overall model , and the difficulties 
are no less severe than for research and 
development. Again the formulation of 
models in neighbouring problem areas will 
help to clarify the problems. 

Many aspects of behaviour cut across all 
these problem areas, shaping objectives 
and conditioning behaviour in ways often 
not susceptible to description in the 
quantitative terms that characterise the 
problem areas. In social behaviour, edu



cation, health, marriage and household 
formation, income distribution, communal 
relations and crime ; the behaviour of 
institutions like companies, trade unions,
local authorities, and the mass media ; in 
politics, the behaviour of parties, electorates, 
pressure groups, and international 
relations and defence ; and in the purposes 
and views of the world which shape the 
lives of men and communities, political 
ideologies, popular traditions, ethics, 
philosophy and religion: all these fundamentally 
condition behaviour and cannot 
be ignored by taking a mechanistic view 
of the world. The basic way in which 
socio-economic systems handle non-quantifiable 
considerations is through the reactions 
of the people involved. Systems 
should therefore be open and highlyadaptive, and such systems are likely to be 
more secure and stable than rigid deter


ministic systems. 

It will be quite apparent that a singlemonolithic study is out of the question.
Apart from the certain disaster from putting 
all our eggs in one basket, the wurk 
needed in each problem area calls for 
engagement with the practical problems 
and operating realities in the field, with 
the greatest insight and expertise available. 

The experts in each field will only work 
in a highly organised framework if it 
enables them to make their own contribution 
more effectively than they can on 
their own and with full scientific integrity. 
There is no formal framework in sightwhich offers them this possibility: theytherefore feel we shall learn more of 
importance to man through research in 
demography, economics, urban development 
and so on if as experts in each field 
they are able to pursue it with full regard 
to other disciplines, contributing to the 
development of a common framework 
rather than having one imposed on them. 

Isolated specialists and specialist teams 
will not, however, tackle systemic problems 
efficiently on their own, and they will 
themselves look for a wider context for 
their work. Specifically there is need for 
the following central functions in the 
conduct of all research work: survey of 
work done, identification and commission


ing of new specialist areas of work, design 
of interfaces (a problem of taxonomy),
commissioning of integrative studies, 
communication of results and design of 
systems for implementation. 

Joint meetings of members of Research 
Councils as well as the reconstituted 
Council for Scientific Policy could develop 
into a standing arrangement for this 
work. Implementation itself is a matter 
for government in the totality of government 
policies. 

All these functions are needed at the 
international level too and they could well 
form the core of the work of the proposed 
International Institute of AppliedSystems Analysis, as well as involving the 
work of UN agencies and other international 
bodies. 

fundamental research 

The dominant reason for wanting more 
fundamental research should be that 
rational and humane policies depend upon 
knowledge, of which we cannot have too 
much. Knowledge should be seen as a 
source of wisdom rather than of power,
and as such it is literally invaluable. Since 
we spend so much on education, it is 
worth spending a small fraction of that 
sum to make sure that we do not teach 
too many falsehoods. 

Fundamental research is a cultural and 
political force of the first order, changing 
attitudes more profoundly and more 
durably-though more slowly-than anypolitical propaganda can do. As well as 
these long term influences, fundamental 
science has a continuous contribution to 
make to the formulation and especially 
the evaluation of current policies and 
problems, from alleged racial differences 
and the relations between heredity and 
environment, to available energy and 
resource supplies. 

Britain's tradition in fundamental research 
in the past three hundred years has 
been as consistently productive of reallybig discoveries as that of any other nation. 
Strong fundamental research, which need 


not mean massive projects in " big 
science ", is one of the special ingredients 
of British life and a continuing contribution 
we can make to mankind as a whole. 
In a democratic society the science must 
be brought out of the laboratories and 
made accessible to all. Undergraduate 
courses and adult education typically lag 
ten years or more behind scientific discovery 
; schools syllabuses can be as much 
as 50 years out of date and reforms like 
the Nuffield School Science Project are 
sporadic and take a long time to have 
general effect. The greatest bar to renewal 
of the content of courses is the false 
historical rating of topics which assumes 
that what is new, being more" advanced" 
scientifically, is more difficult and therefore 
more " advanced " scholastically. 
Thus, Einstein is thought to be more 
difficult than Newton and nuclear physics 

more difficult than hydrodynamics. In 
fact, many of the discoveries of science 
provide wonderful simplifications of subjects 
previously complex and bewildering 
to the learner. Geology, for example, is 
going through that process just now and 
beginning to "make sense." On pastshowing we shall be lucky if the children 
of pupils now learning geology at school 
are let into the secret. 

If people leave school or university without 
even hearing about topics currently 
engaging the interests of fundamental researchers, 
it is little wonder that science 
is regarded as difficult and remote. The 
taxpayer who supports fundamental research 
is lucky if he finds out what his 
money has produced. More generally, the 
human species (even among its well-
educated members) does not know how 
much it knows. 

Curriculae are rightly beyond the reach of 
direct government control, but during the 
technology obsession of the 1960s considerable 
encouragement was given by 
government to curricular and extra-curricular 
involvement in technology ; gentle 
pressure was also applied to the BBC and 
other media to do more about technology.
We suggest similar encouragement of 
more up to date science. 

Great attention has been paid in recent 

years to the transfer of practical knowledge 
from laboratory to development 
process to production. The feeding of 
results of fundamental research into 
policymaking has been left to chance, 
although it must be presumed that science 
advisers and scientific civil servants read 
the relevant literature. It might be tempting 
to suggest some machinery of government 
for ensuring, for example, that discoveries 
in psychology are fed promptly 
into educational planning or discoveries 
about the origin of minerals into industrial 
and foreign policy. 

There are reasons for thinking that 
government is not the best point of input. 
Fundamental research and official policy 
would make uneasy companions : on the 
one hand, the unrestrained and uncommitted 
character of fundamental research 
could be compromised and on the other 
hand new scientific claims might be 
injected too suddenly and over enthusiastically, 
so that the Minister would have 
to read Nature to see if what he said last 
week is still true. 

In any case, fundamental science tends to 
impinge on policy at the highest and most 
general political levels. Discoveries need 
to be digested and their implicationsthought out, in relation to party pro-
grammes, and eventually reformulated as 
political objectives. This is a process for 
which the party is much better suited than 
is the government machine. 

It should become a matter of routine for 
party policymakers to ask what new knowledge 
is coming out of fundamental research 
and to consider how it mayinfluence goals and priorities. 


9. education policy 
education task force report 
We still fall short of our aim of a com-
prehensive educational system which pro-
vides a broad curriculum and allocates 
resources in proportion to the needs of all. 
A general survey, with suggested changes 
in the law to implement proposals, has 
already been published in Labour's Pro-
gramme for Britain and we have not 
attempted to repeat such a survey but to 
examine in more detail the priorities 
and suggest how they might be achieved. 
The principle that should lie behind poli-
cies, and especially the allocation of re-
sources, both outside and within schools, 
is that of positive discrimination, to give 
most help to those most socially dis-
advantaged. Though praiseworthy in aim, 
the Educational Priority Areas are a some-
what blunt instrument for this purpose, as 
it does not seem in accordance with 
comprehensive principles to select a 
minority of the more spectacularly under-
privileged and shower them with benefits 
while ignoring those who just fail to 
qualify. A moderate degree of social dis-
advantage is more widespread than is 
commonly supposed. Discrimination ir: its 
negative form still exists in certain areas 
and once recognised can be tackled 
nationally by a programme for the educa-
tion of teachers and locally by the re-
distribution of resources. A plan for multi-
racial education on these lines has been 
put forward by Felicity Bolton and Jennie 
Laishley (Education for a multi-racial 
Britain, Fabian research series 303) and, 
now that more schools are becoming co-
educational the lack of encouragement for 
girls to do science subjects or to stay on 
at school is causing concern. 
A number of shortcomings in the existingprovision can be noted. First, the lack of 
pre-school provision, which all parties now 
agree should be remedied. The case for 
this has been developed in Tessa Black-
stone's First schools of the future (Fabianresearch series 304). Second, pupil-teacher 
ratios and the provision of ancillary staff 
in all schools should be made more 
generous to meet the extra demands now 
made on schools in their social welfare 
function. A calculation of the minimum 
needs for the imparting of knowledgeduring statutory school hours is no longerenough. Third, LEAs could be helped to 
improve existing building prOVJSJOn byincreases in minor works buildings funds, 
which finance much needed extensions to 
many schools. Fourth, there needs to be 
an increase in the number and effectiveness 
of advisory staffs to improve the quality 
of the services provided. This point needs. 
more attention than it has received, as 
recently the emphasis has been on the 
input of resources and it has been taken 
for granted that they will be efficiently 
used: the monitoring of the education 
service has therefore had less attention 
than the large expenditures have war-
ranted. This is a deficiency in management 
and every LEA should therefore have a 
fully effective advisory service which can 
monitor progress, help and advise, and 
see that desired educational objectives are 
being attained. 
PRE-SCHOOL AND 
PRIMARY 
Regrettably and avoidably, on account of 
environmental factors, many children have 
fallen behind in their learning before they 
arrive at school. There is increasing evi-
dence that such children never catch up. 
Increasing the entry to universities and 
colleges makes little difference to this 
large proportion of children who are 
handicapped in the race to get there. A 
national commitment to the education of 
the under-fives is required with an 
emphasis on those areas where fewest 
children benefit from the educational 
facilities up to and after 18 years. 
The most important need of a youngchild is love, but this alone does not bringlearning as the child needs encouragement. 
example and stimulus for its mental and 
social development. Many young children 
in all classes of society need pre-school 
provisions outside the home, but first 
priority should be given to areas where 
poor homes predominate. Positive dis-
crimination through the identification of 
Educational Priority Areas is welcomed, 
and it is strongly recommended that the 
number of such areas should be increased. 
The need for pre-school facilities is also 
great where the father or mother are in 
poor health, for handicapped children, 
among immigrant families and among 
9. education policy 
education task force report 
We still fall short of our aim of a com-
prehensive educational system which pro-
vides a broad curriculum and allocates 
resources in proportion to the needs of all. 
A general survey, with suggested changes 
in the law to implement proposals, has 
already been published in Labour's Pro-
gramme for Britain and we have not 
attempted to repeat such a survey but to 
examine in more detail the priorities 
and suggest how they might be achieved. 
The principle that should lie behind poli-
cies, and especially the allocation of re-
sources, both outside and within schools, 
is that of positive discrimination, to give 
most help to those most socially dis-
advantaged. Though praiseworthy in aim, 
the Educational Priority Areas are a some-
what blunt instrument for this purpose, as 
it does not seem in accordance with 
comprehensive principles to select a 
minority of the more spectacularly under-
privileged and shower them with benefits 
while ignoring those who just fail to 
qualify. A moderate degree of social dis-
advantage is more widespread than is 
commonly supposed. Discrimination ir: its 
negative form still exists in certain areas 
and once recognised can be tackled 
nationally by a programme for the educa-
tion of teachers and locally by the re-
distribution of resources. A plan for multi-
racial education on these lines has been 
put forward by Felicity Bolton and Jennie 
Laishley (Education for a multi-racial 
Britain, Fabian research series 303) and, 
now that more schools are becoming co-
educational the lack of encouragement for 
girls to do science subjects or to stay on 
at school is causing concern. 
A number of shortcomings in the existingprovision can be noted. First, the lack of 
pre-school provision, which all parties now 
agree should be remedied. The case for 
this has been developed in Tessa Black-
stone's First schools of the future (Fabianresearch series 304). Second, pupil-teacher 
ratios and the provision of ancillary staff 
in all schools should be made more 
generous to meet the extra demands now 
made on schools in their social welfare 
function. A calculation of the minimum 
needs for the imparting of knowledgeduring statutory school hours is no longerenough. Third, LEAs could be helped to 
improve existing building prOVJSJOn byincreases in minor works buildings funds, 
which finance much needed extensions to 
many schools. Fourth, there needs to be 
an increase in the number and effectiveness 
of advisory staffs to improve the quality 
of the services provided. This point needs. 
more attention than it has received, as 
recently the emphasis has been on the 
input of resources and it has been taken 
for granted that they will be efficiently 
used: the monitoring of the education 
service has therefore had less attention 
than the large expenditures have war-
ranted. This is a deficiency in management 
and every LEA should therefore have a 
fully effective advisory service which can 
monitor progress, help and advise, and 
see that desired educational objectives are 
being attained. 
PRE-SCHOOL AND 
PRIMARY 
Regrettably and avoidably, on account of 
environmental factors, many children have 
fallen behind in their learning before they 
arrive at school. There is increasing evi-
dence that such children never catch up. 
Increasing the entry to universities and 
colleges makes little difference to this 
large proportion of children who are 
handicapped in the race to get there. A 
national commitment to the education of 
the under-fives is required with an 
emphasis on those areas where fewest 
children benefit from the educational 
facilities up to and after 18 years. 
The most important need of a youngchild is love, but this alone does not bringlearning as the child needs encouragement. 
example and stimulus for its mental and 
social development. Many young children 
in all classes of society need pre-school 
provisions outside the home, but first 
priority should be given to areas where 
poor homes predominate. Positive dis-
crimination through the identification of 
Educational Priority Areas is welcomed, 
and it is strongly recommended that the 
number of such areas should be increased. 
The need for pre-school facilities is also 
great where the father or mother are in 
poor health, for handicapped children, 
among immigrant families and among 

' gypsies and many other low income 
, families. It is also desirable that all 
1 .children should have a full three year 

.course of infant education. At present,
only autumn born children have three 
1 years, whereas in many areas the summer 
born children have only two years. 

: 
LEA and DES action 

1 There must be more parent participation 

1 
as already practiced in a number of areas. 
In practice this means active day to dayparticipation in the operation and policycontrol of pre-school facilities with the 
use of mothers and fathers as additional 
voluntary or paid helpers. 

The present fragmented approach by;ocial services departments running day 
: rmrseries and education departments run. 
:ling nursery classes and schools must be 

;o-ordinated and the various public and 
voluntary services interwoven. Some posi:
ive direction from central government is 
::>verdue. 

. More and better paid welfare assistants 
l ';hould be employed in infant schools and 
he part time voluntary services of mothers 
;hould be encouraged. LEAS should make 
wailable the benefit of central purchasing 
{acilities to appropriate voluntary organisttions 
such as playgroups. They should 
tlso provide good nursery facilities as an 
ntegrated part of community buildings. 
rhe DES should withdraw the specificestrictions imposed in 1957 on the number 
~f under-fives permitted in infant schools 
reinforced and formalised by the DES 
:ircular 8I60) where sufficient spacetlready exists. Each LEA must decide 
tccording to the circumstances of the area 
vhether provision can best be made in 
mrsery schools or nursery classes attached 
e o primary schools. Action should be taken 

o reduce the present uneven provision
hroughout the country. Although the long 
, erm aim should be the offer of full time 
e 1r part time nursery education for all,

•oluntary playgroups which are a useful 
·orm of community involvement should 
1e encouraged for the time being. 

n the absence of an allocation of all the 

necessary resources, there should be positive 
discrimination in favour of children 
in areas where the greatest proportion of 
them are failing to benefit from the full 
range of educational facilities. This should 
be a first priority. As a second priority, 
existing infant schools should be extended 
by any necessary additional classrooms to 
enable all children to have a three year 
course. Thus all children would be admitted 
to school at the beginning of the 
educational year in which they attained 
their fifth birthday. Part of the first year 
of the three year course should be organised 
on nursery education lines. As a third 
priority, and as an interim measure, 
voluntary pre-school playgroups should 
be encouraged. 

finance 

All approved pre-school education should 
eventually be free to all comers. The self-
financing of running costs of voluntarypre-school playgroups should be encouraged 
but an agreed proportion of free 
places should be made available for needy 
cases nominated by the appropriate officers 
of the local authority. This requirement 
could be in return for a small initial 
capital grant and access to facilities such 
as central purchasing and advisory services. 
Some provision for this alreadyexists in the Children and young personsact, 1963. The Government should adjust 
the rate support grant formula to givegreater weighting to pre-school education, 
or alternatively, a 75 per cent specific 
grant could be given to encourage overdue 
developments in this field. Each LEA 
should be required to submit for approval 
a development plan with priorities. LEA 
minor works building programmes should 
be increased by approximately £80 million 
to enable the necessary extension of 
infants schools for the three year course. 
Where necessary, the criteria-mainly ag.eof buildings-should be relaxed to permit 
the replacement of infants schools in unsatisfactory 
premises. In view of the recent 
concentration of resources on secondary 
and higher education, an allocation of resources 
to pre-school education should be 
no longer delayed as this aspect of the 
Education Act is still not implemented 


46 
after 27 years. The social benefits that 
would result would be considerable. 
SECONDARY EDUCATION 
During this century avenues of advance-
ment have been provided in secondaryeducation for very able working class 
children. Many socialists have believed 
that in furthering these changes they were 
helping to build a socialist society. In 
this they were in a large measure mistaken, 
since secondary schools were required to 
establish machinery whereby chances are 
allotted or withheld for life in an unequalsociety. Schools established devices for 
sorting and grading the pupils and reward-
ing the successful in the spirit of the par-
able of the talents " unto him that hath 
shall be given, and from him that hath not 
shall be taken away." Higher "ability" 
groups are given the best (and most 
expensive) in the allocation of books and 
materials, and a better planned timetable, 
with more coherent objectives for their 
course. Even in comprehensive schools, the 
competitive element may be sharplyemphasised because selection, in the form 
of streaming, takes place within the school, 
although the allocation of recourses to 
different attainment groups is not as dis-
torted as in selective secondary education. 
A policy of positive discrimination in 
planning and resource allocation is needed, 
both between and within schools, to direct 
extra resources to the disadvantagedchildren. Priority should be given to the 
integrating and communal elements in 
school life, like community projects,
mixed-ability grouping and so on, as 
against the divisive and competitive(Prize Day, Oxford entrance results, and 
so on). Also, there should be democracy 
in the organisation and government of 
the school, such as structured arrange-
ments for involving all groups in dis-
cussion and decision-making. This does 
not mean that authority will be weak or 
that standards of work and behaviour will 
be lax; on the contrary, authority, being 
more broadly based, will be strengthened, 
and a considerable degree of responsibilityand co-operation will be required by such 
a system from all members of the school. 
The objectives of the curriculum all 
difficult to define because of the variet 
of functions of the secondary schools t 
prepare children for their life in societl 
to enable them to think and acquire know 
ledge and skills and the ability to take palin discussion, and give them a body c 
useful knowledge. Every child should b 
taught to read, write and speak to the be5 
of its capability. Each person should b 
taught the basic skills needed to run 
home and be a sympathetic and intr'r""'"''~ 
parent. This would include budgetin~ 
home management, and more widely soci~ 
security, finance and problems of · 
justice. They should also be given 
range of cultural and recreational 
ences in art, music, literature and spor 
to develop their interests. Knowledge c 
such disciplines as the sciences, mathema 
tics, languages and history, should be ir 
eluded on as broad a basis as possible, an 
courses should be adapted to pupils wh 
may at first show little interest but becom 
more highly motivated later, while at th 
same time showing a considerable increas 
in their competence with the subject. Ther 
need be no dicotomy between academi 
education and practical needs. 
If educational objectives are the same fc 
all children, there should be a balance 
curriculum designed to secure an intrc 
duction to a wide variety of subject~ 
leaving the options open for choice a 
long as possible. This should meet th 
criticism that secondary education i 
divisive in that some pupils have hig 
status and others low status curricula, b 
giving the same high status curriculum t 
all. It should not be assumed that only th 
most able need to learn academic subject~ 
or that the least able should only hav 
social and vocational studies, nor nee 
traditional roles be reinforced by teachin · 
engineering and metalwork only to boy! 
and needlework only to girls. 
Examinations are a useful servant, bu 
a bad master. Two conditions need t 
be met : first, they should not have 
distorting effect on a school's curriculur 
and this therefore implies a measure c 
teacher participation, if not contro 
Second, other forms of testing such a 
orals, project work, course work asses! 
46 
after 27 years. The social benefits that 
would result would be considerable. 
SECONDARY EDUCATION 
During this century avenues of advance-
ment have been provided in secondaryeducation for very able working class 
children. Many socialists have believed 
that in furthering these changes they were 
helping to build a socialist society. In 
this they were in a large measure mistaken, 
since secondary schools were required to 
establish machinery whereby chances are 
allotted or withheld for life in an unequalsociety. Schools established devices for 
sorting and grading the pupils and reward-
ing the successful in the spirit of the par-
able of the talents " unto him that hath 
shall be given, and from him that hath not 
shall be taken away." Higher "ability" 
groups are given the best (and most 
expensive) in the allocation of books and 
materials, and a better planned timetable, 
with more coherent objectives for their 
course. Even in comprehensive schools, the 
competitive element may be sharplyemphasised because selection, in the form 
of streaming, takes place within the school, 
although the allocation of recourses to 
different attainment groups is not as dis-
torted as in selective secondary education. 
A policy of positive discrimination in 
planning and resource allocation is needed, 
both between and within schools, to direct 
extra resources to the disadvantagedchildren. Priority should be given to the 
integrating and communal elements in 
school life, like community projects,
mixed-ability grouping and so on, as 
against the divisive and competitive(Prize Day, Oxford entrance results, and 
so on). Also, there should be democracy 
in the organisation and government of 
the school, such as structured arrange-
ments for involving all groups in dis-
cussion and decision-making. This does 
not mean that authority will be weak or 
that standards of work and behaviour will 
be lax; on the contrary, authority, being 
more broadly based, will be strengthened, 
and a considerable degree of responsibilityand co-operation will be required by such 
a system from all members of the school. 
The objectives of the curriculum all 
difficult to define because of the variet 
of functions of the secondary schools t 
prepare children for their life in societl 
to enable them to think and acquire know 
ledge and skills and the ability to take palin discussion, and give them a body c 
useful knowledge. Every child should b 
taught to read, write and speak to the be5 
of its capability. Each person should b 
taught the basic skills needed to run 
home and be a sympathetic and intr'r""'"''~ 
parent. This would include budgetin~ 
home management, and more widely soci~ 
security, finance and problems of · 
justice. They should also be given 
range of cultural and recreational 
ences in art, music, literature and spor 
to develop their interests. Knowledge c 
such disciplines as the sciences, mathema 
tics, languages and history, should be ir 
eluded on as broad a basis as possible, an 
courses should be adapted to pupils wh 
may at first show little interest but becom 
more highly motivated later, while at th 
same time showing a considerable increas 
in their competence with the subject. Ther 
need be no dicotomy between academi 
education and practical needs. 
If educational objectives are the same fc 
all children, there should be a balance 
curriculum designed to secure an intrc 
duction to a wide variety of subject~ 
leaving the options open for choice a 
long as possible. This should meet th 
criticism that secondary education i 
divisive in that some pupils have hig 
status and others low status curricula, b 
giving the same high status curriculum t 
all. It should not be assumed that only th 
most able need to learn academic subject~ 
or that the least able should only hav 
social and vocational studies, nor nee 
traditional roles be reinforced by teachin · 
engineering and metalwork only to boy! 
and needlework only to girls. 
Examinations are a useful servant, bu 
a bad master. Two conditions need t 
be met : first, they should not have 
distorting effect on a school's curriculur 
and this therefore implies a measure c 
teacher participation, if not contro 
Second, other forms of testing such a 
orals, project work, course work asses! 

ment, oral testing, multiple choice papers 
and open book examinations are required 
to supplement the traditional three hour 
essay type papers which are essentially 
memory tests. The CSE Boards have made 
great progress in the initiation of new 
examinations and made them a more realistic 
reflection of the work and achievements 
of pupils of varying abilities. When, 
and if, a common 16 plus examination 
using these progressive methods is introduced, 
schools will be relieved of the considerable 
diffi(;ulties they have at presentin trying to operate both GCE and CSE. 

from school to work 

Vocational education in secondary schools 
should attempt to compensate for those 
disadvantages which do exist amongschoolleavers: a sense of failure resulting 
from low academic achievement, a conflict 
of expectations and values between home 
and school, and a denial of adult freedoms 
created by the rigid system of the school. 
The aim should be to initiate young people 
into the community rather than a particular 
job. The schools, in particular, and 
society, in general should not simply be 
concerned to fit young people in the 
" right slots " or even with fostering their 
limmediate wants and interests. These maywell be merely the product of an unequalsociety, and in furthering them we only 
serve to perpetuate it. Young peopleshould be helped towards a growth in 
freedom, aware of the pressures and 
imperfections in society and capable of 
making informed choices on all aspects of 

their future. 

fwo kinds of courses contribute to the 
~ransition from school to work, com-
Tiunity and vocational or work experience 
:ourses. For the first, lectures by visiting 
and community service should be 
a central rather than a peripheral'lace on the timetable for the school 
eaver, and the school linked more closely 
vith its community. These courses should 
1se the resources of the community for 
which can be interpreted in 
school. Students in some schools are 
lready involved in helping in local 
rimary schools, going out on meals on 

wheels services, visiting old people or in 
the launching of playgroups and nurseries 
themselves. This blurring of edges between 
school and community should be encouraged. 
For the second, pupils should be 
given experience of as many kinds of 
work as possible, which they can compare 
and assess. Such courses should not necessarily 
be for young leavers or the less able, 
but should be part of the general education 
of all pupils. More could be done in 
training teachers for these courses. 

school organisation 

The real task of comprehensive schools is 
not only to receive children of widelydiffering levels of attainment, experience, 
interest and motivations into one institution 
which, as we have seen, can still be 
divisive, but to create a living community 
in the school all children have the opportunity 
to develop their several talents and, 
at the same time, feel important and vital 
members of the collective organisation of 
the school. To do this, schools need to 
provide not only a suitable curriculum, but 
extra-curricular activities, and pastoralguidance, such as helping pupils with 
personal and social difficulties. The last 
two aspects have especially suffered because 
schools have considered themselves 
constricted by lack of material resources, 
lack of staff with special training, and 
lack of time that can be given to them ; 
yet it is precisely this provision that, 
especially for average pupils, gives a large 
institution a "human face." 

Any future Labour administration should 
first provide in-service training, and 
additional trained staff, to meet these 
needs, and second, make provision in the 
appointment and allocation of staff to 
schools, for extra-curricular and recreational 
activities. 

A major stumbling block in obtaining the 
full educational benefits from comprehensive 
education has been the practice of 
streaming children in their early years in 
comprehensive schools. One of the majorfears of those who oppose its removal-
holding back the bright child-has not 
generally been substantiated by research. 


There is growing evidence that the non-
streamed situation promotes better social 
and emotional development, especially for 
the average child. Add to this the fact 
that it is very difficult to stream accurately, 
and the system has not proved flexible in 
re-routing the child who has been misplaced, 
and the case against streaming 
becomes substantial. This is not to say that 
slow readers should not be taught in 
separate classes by a qualified and expertteacher, or, on the other hand, that children 
should embark on courses which 
demand a level of attainment they have 
not yet reached. Furthermore, teachers 
cannot be expected to make the transition 
to mixed ability teaching easily without 
training and advice in the professionalexpertise of approach required. An extended 
and more effective advisory service, 
both at central and local level, is needed 
to help teachers realise these aims. 

The provision, within schools, of school 
councils, is an important factor in developing 
a mature attitude among pupils. 
These councils serve two purposes : to give 
pupils a chance to participate in the running 
of the schools and discuss issues 
responsibly (and another form of experience 
in the meaning of democracy) and to 
provide the opportunity to participate in 
the making and carrying out of decisions. 
Such councils would include representatives 
from every section of the 
school: head, teaching staff and pupils, 
and have a well defined procedure and 
area of authority, and grievances would be 
discussed freely, and not dismissed without 
reasons being given, or some promise of 
remedy. It is to be hoped that in certain 
aspects of the organisation of the school 
pupils should be allowed to .learn from 
their mistakes when they seem determined 
on a wrong headed course of action 
rather than, as the tendency is at present, 
never making their own decisions even 
about small things so that they are unprepared 
for decision making when they 
leave school. 

Another aspect of scltool government is 
that of the school governor's role which is 
sometimes considered to be an anomaly,
but in fact school governors and managers 
have a valuable function in that they are 

theoretically responsible for the " conduct 
and curriculum " of the school. However, 
few teachers would accept lay direction in 
what they consider is the professional 
area of the curriculum, but nevertheless, 
there is an important distinction between 
professional responsibility and overall 
managerial responsibility. Whereas the 
head, teaching staff and school council 
carry out the administration, the governorsserve as a watchdog to see that this is done 
within the framework of the schools 
articles and instruments and the policy o~ 
the LEA. In addition, the governing body 
is a link between the school and the community 
it serves. 

EDUCATION FOR 16-19 

Children in the 16-19 age group range 
between two extremes, from those fully 
convinced that they need to further their 
education, to those completely alienated 
from school. To cater for children in this 
group we need a large number of routes 
to further education, ranging from sixth 
forms in comprehensive schools, grammarschool sixth form, sixth form colleges to 
technical colleges with generous provisions 
for suitable night school, and 
day release and sandwich courses at these 
institutions. It is essential that the whole 
range of courses, irrespective of the character 
of the institution, together with suitable 
refresher courses, should be available 
to any young adults who may wish to 
return to their education. 

Although a few members of the task force 
were most concerned that all children who 
really wished to pursue their education upto degree standard should not be barred 
from doing so, the general concensus of 
the group was that in the face of resources · 
which might well be limited, a higherpriority must be given to the youngest 
children. That the task of publicly provided 
education should start with the two 
year old and that to neglect the youngerchild in favour of the older child is like 
embellishing the top of a building to make 
up for skimped foundations. This false, 
and ill conceived approach to prioritieshas prevailed for too long and must be put 
aside if true equality is to be achieved. 


10. social policy 
social services task force report 

It would be unfair to criticise Labour's 
Programme for Britain simply on groundsof vagueness, since it does not claim to 
represent a detailed blueprint. As a general 
statement of Labour's major policy concerns 
there is muoh to welcome in the 
various sections on social policy : the 
Party's commitment to social and economic 
equality is re-established, and 
several of the problem areas which have 
emerged in recent years receive recognition. 
However, an attempt at making helpful 
and constructive criticism must necessarily 
direct attention to those parts of 
the document which are vague and inadequately 
argued, if only because these are 
evidently the issues on which most work 
needs to be done and where contributions 
to debate are presumably most useful. 
More seriously, it is those topics on which 
the report is unclear, and confused, which 
are most likely to be questions which 
will prove most problematic in developing 
more detailed policies. The following 
comments on those sections of the pro-
gramme which deal with social policy will 
therefore concentrate on these weak 
points, not in order to make carping criticism, 
but in order to help further the debate 
which the document has initiated. 

First, one major general point must be 
made. During the Labour Government 
:ertain major controversies and dilemmas 
>wept through the Party on social poli:
ies ; but most of these are strangely ab>
ent from Labour's Programme for 
Britain. For example, there were the ap1eals 
from Labour Ministers that the 
Party realise that choices have to be made 
1etween several equally worthy ends ; 
heir reminders that resources were 
imited and that sacrifices would have to 
)e made : their warnings that we were 
1earing the limits of the extent to which 
~rowth in public spending could be fin-

from direct taxation. There were 

mportant discussions on whether it would 

1e better to introduce selectivity in social 

.ervices rather than accent overall cuts 

¥hich. it was argued. would otherwise be 

nevitable. We were constantly reminded 

hat our social policy aims were depend-

mt on economic growth-which itself 

>roved to be an elusive goal. But this has 

1ever been obvious in logic and has been 

vigorously disputed. Yet certainly a good 
rate of economic growth can greatly ease 
the political problems of redistribution. 

Few of these anxious arguments appear in 
Labour's Programme for Britain. Selectivity 
is only mentioned pejoratively with 
respect to Conservative policies. We are 
assured that the many spending plans can 
be achieved with no extra burden of taxation 
except on the very wealthy. Welcome 
though the wealth tax proposal certainly 
is, it is very doubtful that it could carrythe weight of the document's many commitments. 
An important specific instance 
is the problem of the National Health 
Service. When Richard Crossman was 
Secretary of State for Social Services, he 
argued that demographic changes and 
technological developments created demands 
for spending on the health service 
which would involve a rate of increase 
larger than that of current economic 
growth ; and there was evidence that the 
population was becoming less willing to 
accept constantly increasing taxation (forexample, in Paying for the Social Services, 
Fabian Tract 399). But the section on the 
NHS in Labour's Programme for Britain 
makes no reference to this immense problem 
at all. Yet the rate of increase in 
social service expenditure can certainly be 
greater than it has been in the past 10 
years. As in all industrial societies for 
which there is information, the rate of 
growth of expenditure has been higherthan real growth of national income. Between 
1959 and 1969 the rate was about 
5 per cent compared with under 3 per cent. 
Labour must commit itself unapologetically 
to a high rate of social investment-
in housing. education, health, welfare and 
social services. But it must also be clear 
which sectors can be allowed to grow 
fastest. 

A second example mav be taken from 
higher education. Tn 1969 the Labour 
Government reached the conclusion that 
the rising cost of higher education was 
becoming impossible to support. and that 
economies would have to be made if expenditure 
was to continue. The universities 
were offered a list of 18 alternative 
ways of reducing costs and invited to 
select those which they disliked the least. 


Labour's Programme for Britain confidently 
re-affirms the commitment to one 
million students in full time higher education 
by 1980, but makes no reference to 
the question of meeting the cost, and 
which sacrifices should be made in order 
to do so. 

The purpose of making these points is not 
to call for financial stringency in social 
spending ; it is simply to ensure that the 
Party is forewarned of the problemswhich are likely to occur in practice when 
a Labour government comes into office 
again. Under any government there are 
certain to be times of restraint, economic 
difficulty and cuts. If the Party has not 
established in advance its priorities and 
preferences, the restraints and cuts will be 
made arbitrarily and in an atmosphere of 
emergency ; and the hand wielding the 
knife will be that of the Treasury rather 
than any guiding set of priorities established 
by the Labour Party. 

Obviously, this is not a question which 
should dominate the Party's policy-
thinking in opposition. It is equally important 
that it develops its overall strategy 
and attacks the policies of a Conservative 
government. But it is dangerous if 
this task of establishing priorities among 
our own treasured goals is neglected entirely, 
and this is what Labour's Pro-
f?ramme for Britain does. It is a perpetual 
fault of the Labour Movement to assume 
that taxation and economic growth will 
meet all our goals, with the result that 
every Labour government brings a spellof disillusion. And our scale of prioritiesis blurred and confused. 

This point may be illustrated by again 
considering the NHS and higher education-
this time in contrast with one 
another. Jt is si~nificant that the section 
on education in Labour's Policy is one of 
the longest, best argued and constructed 
in the whole document. while that on 
health seems to Jack any overall perspective 
and consists of a strin_g of vague prorosals. 
Tn this Labour's ProRramme for 
Britain reflects the emphasis of socialist 
thinking in recent years-not least the emphasis 
of Fabian pamphlets. Education is 
an area where at present there is an 

abundance of ideas, objectives and political 
enthusiasm, whereas the NHS has failed 
for several years to inspire much new 
thought. By default, therefore, education 
policy is likely to receive a higher priority 
than health in any future conflict over 
resources. Perhaps this is what the Partyreally wants. But we cannot know that 
this really is the case unless the issue 
has been faced squarely and posed within 
the Party as explicit preferences. A 
unique quality of decisions on NHS expenditure 
is that they can be, literally, 
matters of life and death. For example, a 
decision not to spend additional moneyon equipment for intermittent dialysis for 
kidney disease means that a number of 
people whom medical science could have 
preserved will die. What priority should 
be given to expenditure decisions of this 
kind if it comes to a choice between cuts 
in the health service or a postponementof the commitment to one million full-
time students by 1980? An unqualifiedcommitment to health centres in everydistrict, the replacement of long-stay hospitals 
by sheltered housing as the appropriate 
form of residence for the 
chronic sick, mentally handicapped and 
elderly and the enthusiastic promotion of 
the concept of the community physicianwould do much to place the NHS at the 
forefront of all the world's health 

services. 

SOCIAL SECURITY 

As with health, social security policy in 
the programme is marked by the lack of 
adequate overall thinking. The over· 
riding objective must surely be the abolition 
of poverty in the context of Labour'~ 
traditional attack on inequality ; but nowhere 
are the constituent policies drawn· 
together within this unifying framework. 
Yet only then can the gaps and prioriti~ 
be properly identified. 

Certainly, the main weakness of th(
National Superannuation scheme-tha1 
existing retirement pensioners would no1 
be removed from supplementary benefi1 
poverty---{;ould in principle be met by th( 
proposal to credit them (and other olde1 
people who are shortly to retire) witt 


1 

• 

, 

1 

1 

~or the disasbled the programme is right 

o 
recognise provision for higher daily 
s 
iving costs and compensation for loss of 
:arnings as the key principles. But both 
aise unanswered questions. Since the first 
1rinciple means a far more generous1enefit than the present attendance allow.
nce and will cover far more persons, how 
rill it be paid for and what priority is 
llocated to it as against, say, a major

ension uplift for the existing retired (or 
ny other large innovation in Govern-

contributions. Unfortunately the effect is 
uncertain because of the vagueness of the 
proposal. Older people would be credited 
with " several " years of contributions 
based on half average earnings. But the 
Party must be more specific about its 
aims, even if conditions prevent their fulfilment 
immediately after gaining office. 
Thus, a commitment to raise the level of 
the single retirement pension from around 
20 per cent to between 25 per cent and 
30 per cent of average industrial earnings 
(which is what the Party decided to do 
first of all in 1957) would help to abolish 
poverty in old age and free many pensioners 
from the need to apply for supplementary 
benefits. 

Low wage poverty has at least been fully 
recognised by the proposal to replace FIS 
by a child endowment paid irrespective of 
income (though taxed) to all children, including 
the first, and combining the benefits 
of the present family allowances and 
child tax allowances even for families below 
the tax threshold. It would also, 
crucially, be paid to the mother, unlike 
the Government's proposed tax credits. 
Again, teeth need to be put into this proposal, 
with amounts (expressed as a per;
entage of average industrial earnings)
varying according to age of children. Yet 
.t is not spelt out that none of this pre;
ludes the need for at least two other 
'llajor reforms : a policy for redistribut


ng incomes, possibly involving a national 
ninimum wage, and the re-establishment 
>f a genuinely progressive income tax 
:ombined with further sizeable and reguar 
raising of the tax threshold. 

the disabled 

meat expenditure)? And secondly, if loss 
of earnings is recompensed, is this the 
equivalent of average earnings or minimum 
current earnings? If the former,
how are prablems of equity resolved regarding 
lower paid able bodied workers ? 
And if the latter, how is continuing reliance 
on supplementary benefits to be 
avoided? 

Yet the programme is moving in the rightdirection. In determining benefit, it says, 
"We must move toward making the deg.
ree of handicap the basic factor." If disability 
is assessed functionally, in terms, 
say, of the extent to which people are 
handicapped from undertaking the activities 
normally performed by people of 
roughly the same age, there is the possibility 
of replacing or complementing the 
attendance allowance with a percentagedisability pension. This pension would 
largely solve the problem of paying additional 
sums to the severely disabled 
among the elderly who have to meet the 
extra expenses attributable to their condition. 
If payable to the disabled in work 
it would provide an addition to low earnings 
and provide a basis for a further system 
of compensation for people of working 
age. 

the unemployed 

Another major cause of poverty, unemployment, 
is only briefly touched on 
(with recommended extensions for both 
flat rate and earnings related benefit).
There is a case for a comprehensive review 
of both flat rate and earnings related 
unemployment insurance benefit, 
with the object of improving coverage 
and raising the level of entitlement of the 
low paid. A positive employment policy 
is also needed, which will help to reduce 
redundancies among the middle aged and 
utilise frustrated skills. The Party has 
grossly neglected the unemployment problem 
in recent years and badly needs a 
joint employment and social securitypolicy. Single parent families are hardly 
examined at all in the programme. But 
the Party must not dodge its support, in 
evidence to the Finer Committee for single 
parent family allowances, even though 


52 
this does leave open further difficult 
issues. If it is to be restricted to women 
without other support, how is this to be 
enforced without the ugly interference 
with privacy that the Supplementary Bene-
fit Commission's Special Investigatorshave apparently been guilty of? lf on the 
other hand it is not restricted in this way, 
how is the inequity to be avoided whereby 
a cohabiting mother may have a dual 
source of income compared with the ordi· 
nary married woman? 
cost 
So much of the whole social security de-
bate surrounds the question of cost that it 
is a great pity that one obvious and fair 
source of fresh revenue was not mooted. 
This is the replacement of the presentpartially graduated national insurance 
contributions by a progressive system of 
social security contributions (especially 
now that income tax is increasingly re-
cognised to be regressive in effect). 
According to the Treasury, employers' 
and employees' national insurance contri-
butions in 1971-72 amounted to £2,537m, 
while a levy of 6-} per cent (the National 
Superannuation scheme figure) on all 
earned income between £18 and £48 a 
week, with matching by the employer, 
would yield £2,200 million. But if 7 percent were levied on all earned income up 
to £2,000 a year, plus 12 per cent on 
earned income between £2,000 and £5,000 
a year and 20 per cent on earned income 
above £5,000, the yield would be £3,000 
million a year, plus whatever matching 
was required from the employers.
Considerations along these lines could 
clearly transform the whole social secu-
rity arena for a future Labour govern-
ment wholly compatibly with wider in-
come distribution objectives, and the 
abolition of poverty from Britain would 
become an entirely feasible goal. 
HOUSING POLICY 
Two awkward issues of housing policy 
are at least tackled in this section of 
Labour's Programme for Britain; the need 
for increased municipalisation and the im-
portance of securing some form of equit)
in the subsidies given to different secton 
of housing. But these are also areas when 
the arguments are marred by vagueness 
The commitment to increased municipa 
control of private rented housing couJo! 
well be made stronger. This is not simp!) 
a matter of reviving old slogans ; very re· 
cent developments indicate the need f01 
such a policy. Experience of the Labom 
Government's Rent Act has shown that 
while the Act has by no means been c: 
failure, it is difficult to bring help througi' 
legislation to people living in the slum~ 
of the inner urban areas. Ignorance of th~ 
law, fear and the superior ability of land· 
lords to use their legal rights have ham 
pered the effectiveness of a policy of re• 
gulation. It is difficult to see any usefu 
future for the private landlord in at leas 
these areas. Second, the discovery in 196~ 
that many older houses need not be de 
molished but could be improved has im 
portant implications. It is essential thal 
local authorities make a rational decisior 
on the fate of old houses and do not de1 
molish where it is unnecessary. However 
it is undesirable that this choice become~ 
one of demolition and the construction 0 1 
council houses versus improvement anc 
the maintenance by private landlords. Tht 
need is therefore for powers which enabh 
local authorities more readily to acquinthe properties which they will modernise 
this means in effect a policy of increasec 
municipalisation. 
subsidies 
The second central issue, that of subsidie: 
and the contrast between the council anc 
owner occupied sectors, is tackled b1 
Labour's Programme for Britain, but witt 
inadequate results. Some useful proposal:· 
are made, such as the scope for excludin! 
surtax from mortgage interest tax 
and the idea of limiting tax relief to mort 
gages of up to a certain level. But the 
crucial question is badly handled ; that is 
on what basis are housing subsidies, of al 
kinds, to be assessed ? Any attempt a 
making comparisons between sectors mus 
involve consideration of this, while with 
in the council sector the Party's commit 
ment to repeal the Housing Finance Ac 
52 
this does leave open further difficult 
issues. If it is to be restricted to women 
without other support, how is this to be 
enforced without the ugly interference 
with privacy that the Supplementary Bene-
fit Commission's Special Investigatorshave apparently been guilty of? lf on the 
other hand it is not restricted in this way, 
how is the inequity to be avoided whereby 
a cohabiting mother may have a dual 
source of income compared with the ordi· 
nary married woman? 
cost 
So much of the whole social security de-
bate surrounds the question of cost that it 
is a great pity that one obvious and fair 
source of fresh revenue was not mooted. 
This is the replacement of the presentpartially graduated national insurance 
contributions by a progressive system of 
social security contributions (especially 
now that income tax is increasingly re-
cognised to be regressive in effect). 
According to the Treasury, employers' 
and employees' national insurance contri-
butions in 1971-72 amounted to £2,537m, 
while a levy of 6-} per cent (the National 
Superannuation scheme figure) on all 
earned income between £18 and £48 a 
week, with matching by the employer, 
would yield £2,200 million. But if 7 percent were levied on all earned income up 
to £2,000 a year, plus 12 per cent on 
earned income between £2,000 and £5,000 
a year and 20 per cent on earned income 
above £5,000, the yield would be £3,000 
million a year, plus whatever matching 
was required from the employers.
Considerations along these lines could 
clearly transform the whole social secu-
rity arena for a future Labour govern-
ment wholly compatibly with wider in-
come distribution objectives, and the 
abolition of poverty from Britain would 
become an entirely feasible goal. 
HOUSING POLICY 
Two awkward issues of housing policy 
are at least tackled in this section of 
Labour's Programme for Britain; the need 
for increased municipalisation and the im-
portance of securing some form of equit)
in the subsidies given to different secton 
of housing. But these are also areas when 
the arguments are marred by vagueness 
The commitment to increased municipa 
control of private rented housing couJo! 
well be made stronger. This is not simp!) 
a matter of reviving old slogans ; very re· 
cent developments indicate the need f01 
such a policy. Experience of the Labom 
Government's Rent Act has shown that 
while the Act has by no means been c: 
failure, it is difficult to bring help througi' 
legislation to people living in the slum~ 
of the inner urban areas. Ignorance of th~ 
law, fear and the superior ability of land· 
lords to use their legal rights have ham 
pered the effectiveness of a policy of re• 
gulation. It is difficult to see any usefu 
future for the private landlord in at leas 
these areas. Second, the discovery in 196~ 
that many older houses need not be de 
molished but could be improved has im 
portant implications. It is essential thal 
local authorities make a rational decisior 
on the fate of old houses and do not de1 
molish where it is unnecessary. However 
it is undesirable that this choice become~ 
one of demolition and the construction 0 1 
council houses versus improvement anc 
the maintenance by private landlords. Tht 
need is therefore for powers which enabh 
local authorities more readily to acquinthe properties which they will modernise 
this means in effect a policy of increasec 
municipalisation. 
subsidies 
The second central issue, that of subsidie: 
and the contrast between the council anc 
owner occupied sectors, is tackled b1 
Labour's Programme for Britain, but witt 
inadequate results. Some useful proposal:· 
are made, such as the scope for excludin! 
surtax from mortgage interest tax 
and the idea of limiting tax relief to mort 
gages of up to a certain level. But the 
crucial question is badly handled ; that is 
on what basis are housing subsidies, of al 
kinds, to be assessed ? Any attempt a 
making comparisons between sectors mus 
involve consideration of this, while with 
in the council sector the Party's commit 
ment to repeal the Housing Finance Ac 

will make it necessary to find a new basis 
for awarding subsidy as an alternative. 
It is surely inconceivable that the Partyshould want to return to the chaos and 
historical anomaly which comprised the 
system which the Conservatives are now 
replacing. What is perhaps needed most 
of all is the separation of a subsidygranted to families by the State to help 
with housing costs from the assessment 
of the rents and priC<es which would be 
necessary to ensure efficient housing markets. 
At present these are inextricablymixed in a confusion of subsidies and tax 
reliefs which secures neither justice nor 
efficiency. The only way out of the labyrinth 
is likely to be some form of housing 
allowance, applying across the different 
sectors, and replacing at least in part the 
various existing subsidies. 

I' 

,. Unfortunately, this is a problem on which 
. 'the document is less than helpful. It 
t asserts : " It is fundamental to our beliefs 
that local authorities should not make a 
profit from their housing." At one extreme 
this leads to the policy which for so 
5 long disfigured housing in Scotland where 
~ ,in several cities and towns council rents 
j were kept very low at the expense of the 
:ouncils' ability to construct new homes 
Eor those living in the slums. Surely, it is 

e :m excellent arrangement if counchls are 
il:ble to make a profit from their housing 
which they can use to increase further 
cheir stock, provided that the rents which 
.he tenants pay from their own resources 
tre kept reasonable by a state subsidy. Simlarly, 
when the document draws attention, 
·ightly, to the disparity between the sub;
idies received by owner-occupiers and 
:ouncil tenants, it smudges its argument 
iisastrously. "We therefore believe that 
.he level of help to the public sector 
\hould be broadly compara·ble in total, to 
hat given ~or owner-occupation." This is 
l remarkably crude concept of equality ; 
1uch global figures for the two sectors 
~ear no relation at all to the circum,
tances of the individual families within 
he sectors to their housing costs, or inleed 
even to the total number of peoplenvolved in the respective sectors ! 

n pr-oducing more detailed proposals the 

•arty will have to advance from this kind 
of argument. Both the need to find a replacement 
for the Conservative " fair 
rents " policy, and the desire to secure 
equity between the sectors, will necessitate 
a more thoroughgoing re-examination of 
the basis of housing subsidies and tax-
reliefs than is admitted by Labour's Pro-
gramme for Britain. It must surely consider 
the case for some form of flat rate 
housing allowance. The Party has traditionally 
opposed means tests, and has reaffirmed 
on several occasions its aim to 
reduce the supplementary benefits scheme 
to the dimensions of a residual service. 
Consistency demands a principled approach 
to the question of housing allowances. 
All the evidence suggests that some 
people with low incomes will not claim, 
or not receive, the means-tested allowances 
for which they are eligible. The 
Government's scheme will also make a lot 
worse the poverty trap for the low paid . 
Allowances might instead be paid on the 
basis of need for accommodation-taking 
account both of number and age of dependants 
and state of health of the family 
or individual. These allowances could be 
taxed back directly or indirectly in arrears 
from the rich. If allowances are paid as of 
right, families will know they can count on 
them and will begin to plan accordingly 
with the allowances. Families with dependants 
will be more prepared to payhigher rents for the accommodation that 
they need. 

HEALTH CARE AND THE 
NHS 

In contrast to the " latest NHS crisis " 
reports in the mass media, health care in 
the UK is outstandingly successful. There 
are two main reasons, first, because an 
actual financial barrier and an " anxiety 
financial barrier " about access to acute 
care, and much chronic care, have now 
been removed. Seco'nd, because the UK is 
very successful in terms of hard indicators 
of the cost effectiveness of health care, 
(judging effectiveness by statistics about 
death rates and so on, which give some 
clue about the preventative and curative 
functions, and judging costs by the proportion 
of GNP or national income spent). 
However, the effectiveness criteria are less 
impressive than the cost criteria and we 


lag behind countries such as Sweden in 
terms of effectiveness. 

Now that these fundamental objectivesof the NHS have been achieved it is possible 
and desirable to tackle new problems. 
In thinking about the next 10-20 years of 
health care in the UK, it is essential to look 
at the problems underlying our difficulties 
rather than to produce a number of disparate 
solutions. Equally, we need to do 
more than to tinker with the size and 
composition of committees, we need to 
think in terms of social processes as well 
as institutions. Labour's Programme for 
Britain does not approach the question of 
policy in this fundamental way. On the 
health service it is very vague (apart from 
a few specific proposals which are welcome-
like a free family planning service, 
abolition of prescription charges and the 
production of a plan for public ownership 
within the pharmaceutical industry). 

Moreover, more space is devoted to the 
possibilities of creating an occupationalhealth service-which, independent of a 
plan for the NHS as a whole, could be a 
sad diversion of energies, and introduce 
more, rather than less, inequality of health 
care. 

Our systematic information about the 
health problems faced by the public is 
woefully inadequate. Similarly, we lack 
solid information about the problemsfaced by the many different providers of 
care. Social surveys are not a panacea-
but they have been undesirably neglected 
in the recent past. In the absence of adequate 
information about the health problems 
perceived by the consumers and providers 
of care and hence about the present 
and future objectives of health care, the 
desirable objectives can be discerned only 
in the most general terms. They might 
therefore include: 

1. The achievement of the highest standards 
of health. 
2. The equitable delivery to the public of 
the highest standards of health care in 
technical and personal terms to cover 
preventive, curative, rehabilitative and 
caring functions ; (this would almost certainly 
require state service for the disadvantaged 
groups). 

3. Excellent and socially just terms and 
conditions of work for the providers oil 
care. The needs of the public and the 
provider are interdependent. Better 
care needs better staff conditions ; betten 
job satisfaction for staff needs better 
conditions of work and better relationships 
with the consumers of care. 
In the light of these provisional objectives, 
a number of points emerge: 

1. Health care involves more than the NHS. 
Many of our major problems are preventable 
if we choose to take action outside 
the NHS (for instance in relation to 
lung cancer ; poverty ; accidents in the 
home, on the road and at work ; unwanted 
pregnancies ; social and psychological 
stress disorders including work-
related problems, suicide and drug dependence). 
2. Health services are now widely understood 
to involve much more than prevention 
and cure-they fail without care. 
Furthermore, the care element of the NHS 
is not reflected by cost-effectiveness ap· 
praisals. Deficiencies in care manifest 
themselves particularly in relation tc 
neglected and substantial groups such as 
the chronic sick, and the mentally ill anchandicapped. 
But there are other defi· 
ciencies. In general practice, a skimping o1 
personal care and attention and insensi 
tivity to the public is far too common-
and it is bad for doctors as well as patientl 
(difficulty in getting an appointment anc 
shortage of time with the doctor an 
normal). In hospitals, there continue to b~ 
the delays, waiting lists and other failure~ 
of consideration for patients and relatives 
including the frequent problem of in 
adequate information. There are still fru 
too many archaic and inhuman practice~ 
in relation to visiting and when a child i• 
hospitalised. 
3. Deficiences in the care aspects of tht 
NHS are closely related to a lack of can 
for NHS staff of all kinds. 
It is commonly said that one of the majo 


problems of the NHS is that it is too 
dominated by doctors-that it represents 
an excess of syndicalism. This is a dangerous 
and misleading analysis that fails 
to distinguish between a handful of doctors 
who constitute the medical Establishment 
and the majority of medical pro-

r viders of care whether they are juniorospital doctors, general practitioners or 

s 
regional specialists. There are many signsthat the ordinary doctor has much too low 
job satisfaction within the NHS ; for 
instance, the rate of medical emigration is 
>till running at a net outflow of about 300 
doctors a year. To think mainly in terms 
)f building more medical schools is to 

1-vvaste resources and to ignore a deeper)roblem. Similarly, the working nurse, 

o ;vhether she be ward sister or student 
e mrse, is still treated like a hired hand and 
I· • he current (Salmon) reorganisation of 
r 10spital nursing replaces a traditional 
1ierarchy with an equally inappropriate 
I· 'ramework-a managerial elite. The manytnd essential paramedical and supportingvorkers within the NHS continue to have 
r· >oor pay (sometimes notoriously poor) 
tnd grossly inadequate, say, in the running 
!. •>f our health institutions. Again this is 
s >ad for the staff and bad for patients. 

underlying causes 

)ur present problems mainly result from 
. failure to ask staff and public what theyhink and to foster their full participation 
n the decisions taken about the NHS. 

ll 
Yledical and nursing staff within hospitals 

!(! re still dominated by rigid hierarchies. 
\.ppointments reek of patronage. The 
ublic is " represented " by a mass of 
ppointed and unknown people on HMCs 
nd RHBS whose activities are, in effect 
ecret, until far too late. The present White 
'aper argues for the separation of mangement 
and representation because it says1ere has been a confusion about these 
wo functions. Far from there being conusion, 
there has in effect, been virtually 
t o representation. 

lid and inadequate buildings and equip-
lent inherited by the NHS are still a majorazard and furthermore, they have a 

demoralising effect upon the public and 
staff. But the widely felt problem of lack 
of money cannot be separated from the 
lack of opportunity for the public and 
NHS staff to be effectively involved in 
decisions about the NHS and its resources. 
There has been little effective pressure for 
the re-allocation of resources or for increased 
resources. 

specific proposals 

1. The NHS is essentially a service for 
people hy people. It has, however, been 
allowed to remain an insensitive bureaucracy. 
We therefore urgently need to develop 
extensive participation in decision-
taking throughout the NHS by staff and 
public: 
(a) within each working unit of the NHS, 
whether hospital, health centre or grouppractice, we need to develop decision-
making bodies which represent fairly, the 
public served and the staff. The precisecharacter of such forums should not be 
dictated from the centre; 
(b) power should be devolved from the 
centre-this means from the DHSS and the 
medical and nursing Establishments to the 
actual providers and recipients of services; 
(c) to develop socially just decision taking 
between institutions and between different 
areas we need to build up decision taking 
bodies at area, regional and national levels, 
which represent tlie working units, that is, 
there should be a " bottom up " processof representation. The proposals in 
Labour's Programme for Britain for 
offering most seats on area health boards 
for local authority members, some for 
employees directly elected by fellow 
workers, and some for trade union representatives, 
are insufficiently responsive and 
clear cut. 
(d) effective participation is a social process 
and has to be learned. The opportunities 
for staff and public to developtheir participatory skills are therefore 
essential and these include: better information 
about health problems and 
health services (this must include help 

from the communications industries which 
currently give health a squalid deal-
though the media are too often not helpedby the NHS Establishments) and reasonable 
conditions for participation. In practice,
this means for the public that meetingssometimes have to be arranged to fit in 
with working hours and that time off work 
has to be encouraged. Further, time spent 
in representing the public should be fully 
compensated financially. For staff, participation 
must not amount simply to a mass 
of extra paper work on top of normal 
work. 

2. If, as a society we so choose, extra staff 
of all kinds and in large numbers could be 
available to improve out of all recognition 
the currently under-manned sectors of 
care. Widespread unemployment, in part 
at least, represents a basic change in the 
volume of labour required to produceconsumer goods. Apart from its soundness 
in ecological terms, it is now a mark of a 
civilised technological society that it shifts 
the labour so released to social services, 
including health care. Our problem is, 
therefore, essentially one of better social 
accounting and the adaptation of education 
so that we replace the degradation 
and obscene waste of unemployment by 
the development of socially useful and 
enjoyable labour within the social services. 
Some changes, such as the introduction of 
a general practice transport service, could 
be achieved at once. 
3. Health care needs effective action outside 
the NHS. We need to make sure that 
considerations of health care are much 
better taken into account when making 
social decisions about the whole range of 
issues. This calls for action in a number 
of fields ; in relation to the communications 
industries and their treatment of 
health issues ; in the planning of roads 
and other transport, industry and housing; 
and in the development of occupationalhealth care which integrates with NHS and 
other health care. This should include 
attention to psycho-social aspects. 

11. the law and human rights 
home office issues task force report 

It would be a great calamity if the next 
Labour Government failed to utilize to 
the full the opportunity that is presented 
by control of the Home Office. Those 
opportunities must be seized upon in order 
to complement every other social and 
economic policy that will be pursued. At 
the very roots of Labour Party policythere must lie those major promises of 
freedom and equality which may too easilybe mistaken for empty, dated concepts, 
devoid of contemporary political significance. 
But nothing could be more unfortunate, 
for not only do they supply the 
rationale that makes sense of all the rest 
of any political programme but also, 
properly articulated and developed, they 
provide a range of policies that is crucial 
and indispensable to a socialist manifesto. 
A vigorous and radical approach to Home 
Office issues is demanded uncompromisingly, 
consistent with those other policies 
of social justice, equality and individual 
freedom that the mainstream of economic 
and social policies are designed to accomplish. 
A neutral or negative stewardship 
of the Home Office would be intolerable: 
it would renounce a major vehicle for 
achieving those aims that the Labour Partyholds to be essential. What those aims are 
and the means for their attainment require 
some elaboration. 

fundamental rights 

Political and legal rights without economic 
rights are incomplete and something of a 
cruel joke. A right to free speech is no 
mbstitute for economic security. But 
equally economic security is small comfort 
if the state or indeed any other organisation 
abuses its power, oppresses individuals, 
fails to protect minorities and canllot 
be checked or challenged. If equalityis to be meaningful, the state's power can 
'110 more be uncontrolled than can that of 
any individual or group in the community.
Both must be subject to law ; a code of 
equality must be supreme, embodying
·ights and freedoms fundamental in a 
;tate which seeks to do justice to all its 
~itizens, to eradicate inequality and extend 

measure of protection to all citizens. 
,\t present there is no reliable safeguard 
'or our liberties in English law. Parlia


ment wields a power that is uncontrolled. 
Fundamental rights and freedoms are nowhere 
set forth and still less guaranteed. 
For a Party that believes so insistently in 
individual dignity and freedom, this is a 
situation that should not be allowed to 
persist. A bold step should be taken, 
frankly acknowledging the problem and 
offering a solution. That solution lies in a 
Bill of Rights enunciating all the fundamental 
rights and endowing them with a 
durability they now lack. Political expediency 
would no longer determine the limits 
of freedom. And a Labour governmentwould unequivocally be expressing its 
regard for political and legal rights in a 
tangible form. It would stand as the principal 
exponent of civil libeties in this 
country today. We welcome the points on 
civil liberties mentioned in the Party's 
recently published draft programme, but 
is it a subject that merits relegation to the 
end of every manifesto? It is the relative 
unimportance invariably attached to the 
subject that concerns us. Nor are we convinced 
that the essence of the problem is 
being tackled in the proposals listed. 
But even a Bill of Rights would not be 
enough. A far ranging review of administrative 
law, with a code of administrative 
practice, is a vital ingredient in any plan to 
defend the citizen in his dealings with the 
state. And still more is necessary. A variety 
of other measures are also called for, 
measures which also will extend individual 
rights and egalitarianism but which are 
either not part of a Bill of Rights or must 
be introduced independently. There is no 
lack of proposals, formulated by the 
Society of Labour Lawyers, Justice, the 
NCCL and similar organisations. This rich 
source of ideas would keep a Home Secretary 
occupied for many years. Some are 
of particular importance and require an 
immediate expression of support from a 
party pledged to implement them at the 
earliest opportunity. The chief of these are 

adumbrated below. 

legal aid and bail 

High on any list of priorities must be legal 
aid. Over twenty years ago a Labour 
Government introduced the legal aid system. 
It now falls to another Labour gov



58 
ernment to extend that system to meet the 
demands of today's society. It is clear 
from the present Government's Legal Aid 
and Assistance Act-which primarilyimplements the "£25 scheme," making 
available advice up to that sum more 
generously than at present-that the sums 
of money required are not to be made 
available by the Tories. We note with 
pleasure that the draft programme pro-
poses support for legal advice centres, in 
our view essential, if access to lawyersand the courts is to be a reality. Particu-
larly is this a problem in the criminal 
courts, where the provision of a dutysolicitor to assist those not otherwise rep-
resented would do so much to solve some 
of the chronic problems that currently 
cause concern, including denial of both 
bail and legal aid in magistrates' courts. 
The problem of remands in custodypending trial is recognised in the draft 
programme, but no clear solution is 
offered. Much more liberal provision of 
legal aid, a state supported system of 
neighbourhood law centres and dutysolicitors attached to magistrates' courts 
will go far in dealing with the widespread 
injustice caused by the criminal process. 
And on the civil side, legal aid should be 
available before all administrative tri-
bunals-its present exclusion is indefen-
sible-and in all forms of litigation, 
defamation included ; the present income 
and capital limits are in need of funda-
mental revision ; and an urgent review of 
the complex and anomalous legal aid 
rules is essential. 
the police 
We recognise the difficulty of controllingpolice conduct from outside by any means 
-although the admissibility of evidence 
obtained unlawfully, scarcely encourages 
the police to act scrupulously in accord-
ance with the law and the Judges' Rules-
but we are profoundly unhappy with the 
present system of dealing with complaints 
against the police, and concluded that an 
official similar to the Ombudsman should 
be appointed to investigate these com-
plaints. We are thus extremely pleased to 
see the draft programme making this very 
recommendation, one that, a it observes, 
would be " in the interests of police an 
public alike." 
The recommendations of the Crimina 
Law Revision Committee, in their recen 
report on evidence, demand the most care 
ful scrutiny. At first sight, we are far frorr 
convinced that all the changes they urgt 
are required: in particular, we are un 
happy with the proposed curtailment ol 
the right to silence. As the draft pro 
gramme notes: " ... it would be quitt 
wrong to weaken the protection of tht 
ordinary citizens in the courts." Our more 
considered view will appear later. Nc 
legislation should be introduced until tht 
fullest public debate has taken place. 
sentencing 
Our prison population is too large. Despit~ 
attempts-notably in the Criminal Justict 
Act of 1967-to reduce the number ol 
prison sentences, the prison populatior 
has continued to grow. More emphasi~ 
should be placed, as the present Crimina 
Justice Bill and the draft programmtrealise, on non-custodial and semi-custo 
dial sanctions. Traditional sanctions sud 
as fines and probation, more recent addi 
tions like suspended sentences and attend 
ance centres, and proposed sanctions likt 
community service orders and deferrec 
sentences are all of critical importance 
But of course, some offenders will still bt 
sent to prison. Present prison condition• 
are intolerable and must be steadily im 
proved if rehabilitation is ever to be feas 
ible. A review of the system of punish 
ment in prisons, suggested in the draf 
programme, is long overdue. Indeed 
prisoners' rights as a whole merit investi 
gation. And parole, introduced by the Ia 
Labour administration, has proved a sue 
cess, but the system is remote from tho t 
applying and facilities for personal appear 
ance should be provided. 
drugs, censorship, abortion, 
patients' rights 
There is no mention in Labour's Pro 
gramme for Britain of any of the t 
matters. We view in the context of tht 
individual's right to privacy, his right tc 
58 
ernment to extend that system to meet the 
demands of today's society. It is clear 
from the present Government's Legal Aid 
and Assistance Act-which primarilyimplements the "£25 scheme," making 
available advice up to that sum more 
generously than at present-that the sums 
of money required are not to be made 
available by the Tories. We note with 
pleasure that the draft programme pro-
poses support for legal advice centres, in 
our view essential, if access to lawyersand the courts is to be a reality. Particu-
larly is this a problem in the criminal 
courts, where the provision of a dutysolicitor to assist those not otherwise rep-
resented would do so much to solve some 
of the chronic problems that currently 
cause concern, including denial of both 
bail and legal aid in magistrates' courts. 
The problem of remands in custodypending trial is recognised in the draft 
programme, but no clear solution is 
offered. Much more liberal provision of 
legal aid, a state supported system of 
neighbourhood law centres and dutysolicitors attached to magistrates' courts 
will go far in dealing with the widespread 
injustice caused by the criminal process. 
And on the civil side, legal aid should be 
available before all administrative tri-
bunals-its present exclusion is indefen-
sible-and in all forms of litigation, 
defamation included ; the present income 
and capital limits are in need of funda-
mental revision ; and an urgent review of 
the complex and anomalous legal aid 
rules is essential. 
the police 
We recognise the difficulty of controllingpolice conduct from outside by any means 
-although the admissibility of evidence 
obtained unlawfully, scarcely encourages 
the police to act scrupulously in accord-
ance with the law and the Judges' Rules-
but we are profoundly unhappy with the 
present system of dealing with complaints 
against the police, and concluded that an 
official similar to the Ombudsman should 
be appointed to investigate these com-
plaints. We are thus extremely pleased to 
see the draft programme making this very 
recommendation, one that, a it observes, 
would be " in the interests of police an 
public alike." 
The recommendations of the Crimina 
Law Revision Committee, in their recen 
report on evidence, demand the most care 
ful scrutiny. At first sight, we are far frorr 
convinced that all the changes they urgt 
are required: in particular, we are un 
happy with the proposed curtailment ol 
the right to silence. As the draft pro 
gramme notes: " ... it would be quitt 
wrong to weaken the protection of tht 
ordinary citizens in the courts." Our more 
considered view will appear later. Nc 
legislation should be introduced until tht 
fullest public debate has taken place. 
sentencing 
Our prison population is too large. Despit~ 
attempts-notably in the Criminal Justict 
Act of 1967-to reduce the number ol 
prison sentences, the prison populatior 
has continued to grow. More emphasi~ 
should be placed, as the present Crimina 
Justice Bill and the draft programmtrealise, on non-custodial and semi-custo 
dial sanctions. Traditional sanctions sud 
as fines and probation, more recent addi 
tions like suspended sentences and attend 
ance centres, and proposed sanctions likt 
community service orders and deferrec 
sentences are all of critical importance 
But of course, some offenders will still bt 
sent to prison. Present prison condition• 
are intolerable and must be steadily im 
proved if rehabilitation is ever to be feas 
ible. A review of the system of punish 
ment in prisons, suggested in the draf 
programme, is long overdue. Indeed 
prisoners' rights as a whole merit investi 
gation. And parole, introduced by the Ia 
Labour administration, has proved a sue 
cess, but the system is remote from tho t 
applying and facilities for personal appear 
ance should be provided. 
drugs, censorship, abortion, 
patients' rights 
There is no mention in Labour's Pro 
gramme for Britain of any of the t 
matters. We view in the context of tht 
individual's right to privacy, his right tc 

be free to live his life unmolested by the 
state, except on compelling grounds. We 
feel it is wrong to ignore them solelybecause they are contentious. 

1. In our view-and it is one which reflects 
the findings of official commissions in 
several countries including Canada and 
the United States-the present laws regarding 
the private possession of cannabis 
are untenable. We know that this is a 
sensitive area and many Fabians will not 
agree with this recommendation. The indications 
are that cannabis is no more harmful 
than either tobacco or alcohol, and 
very likely less so. No legal sanctions 
should be allowed to remain unless reason 
supports them. No one should be subject 
to the criminal law without the clearest 
justification on the part of society. Although 
everything should be done to discourage 
drug laking, as with smoking and 
drinking, this is not a legitimate task for 
the criminal law. It would be better to 
make available a properly regulated and 
pure supply of cannabis to those over a 
certain age, rather than maintain laws 
that give scope for harrassment and bring
, people into contact with the criminal law 
who are, by no stretch of the imagination, 
criminals. The present law, by embracing 
both non-dangerous drugs and dangerousdrugs, makes it easier for pushers to introduce 
a cannabis user to more harmful 
drugs, and so can be itself responsible for 
the graduation from cannabis to heroin 
and similar drugs. On this ground, too, the 
present law is unacceptable. There is no 
conclusive evidence to show that the use 
of non-dangerous drugs leads onto the 
use of dangerous drugs. There should 
be no relaxation of the law in connection 
with any other drugs, but we are firmly 
opposed to the unnecessary and extensive 
power of search without warrant is conferred 
by the Misuse of Drugs Act. 

' 

2. We take a similar view of censorship. 
We wish to preserve controls relating to 
children, especially in the portrayal of 
violence (which worries us much more 
than sex), and to public displays of pornographic 
matter, but adults should be 
wholly free to obtain such material if they 
wish. They equally have a right to avoid 
'it, so that unsolicited mailings, like public 

displays, should continue to be controlled. 
It follows from this recommendation that 
pre-censorship of films as it now operates 
under the Cinematograph Acts should be 
repealed, although the British Board of 
Film Censors (suitably renamed) should 
continue to classify films as unsuitable for 
children, and that classification would have 
the force of law. Other certificates could 
also be issued, destitute of legal force, 
simply as guidance to adults. 

3. The Official Secrets Acts should be 
examined in their entirety, since it has 
long been felt that their ambit is dangerously 
wide. The terms of reference of the 
Franks Committee should be widened : it 
is absurd that they should be confined 
only to the worst section of one Act. 
4. On abortion, we regret that the significant 
reform which the last Labour Government 
made possible, has not rid us of 
the backstreet abortionist, nor is there 
consistency througout the country in the 
Act's operation. While the provision of 
contraceptive services should be greatlyextended, made available on the National 
Health Service and widely advertised, we 
do not believe the problems we have 
mentioned can be solved without making 
available abortion as of right under the 
National Health Service. We have also 
viewed this problem in the context of 
women's rights, which we consider next. 
5. The 1959 Mental Health Act did much 
to protect individuals against prolongedconfinement in mental hospitals, but it did 
nothing to safeguard the inalienable right 
of everyone, mental patients included, to 
refuse any treatment which might alter his 
personality. Action to incorporate this 
right in the law is urgent. 
discrimination against 
women 

"It is becoming clearer every day," comments 
Labour's Programme for Britain, 
" that • women's rights ' have re-emerged 
as a distinct issue demanding an explicit 
response within the Party Programme."
The final report of the Party's study group 
examining this question is expected later 
in the year. We shall examine its detailed 


findings then ; meanwhile, we are in 
complete agreement with the draft programme's 
recommendation involving the 
intervention of the law to eliminate discrimination 
in employment on grounds of 
sex, enforced by an Anti-Discrimination 
Board. Our only doubt is that this may 
not go far enough. We also welcome the 
acceleration of the progress in the EqualPay Act, introduced by the last Labour 
Administration, which the draft pro-
gramme promises, but this can work 
effectively and fairly, only in conjunction 
with anti-discrimination legislation to prevent 
evasion of the Act by intensified discrimination 
against women. 

bill of rights 

The very essence of the whole question of 
civil liberties is, in our view, met only by 
a bill of rights. The great value of a bill of 
rights is that it would identify our rightsand freedoms. In addition, therefore, to its 
educative function it would serve to inhibit 
a Government from introducing legislation 
violative of its provisions. And if it could 
be invested with legal authority, the courts 
would be authorised to strike down 
statutes in conflict with the bill. At first, 
the judges would probably be reluctant to 
fashion new rights and freedoms out of 
the bill, as the American judges do, but 
they would vigilantly apply those provisions 
to statutes, denying effect to anythat tampered with basic rights. It is 
curious that in a country which is a signatory 
to the European Convention on 
Human Rights and which accords the 
right of individual petition to the Commission 
(the latter granted by the last 
Labour Government), neither that convention 
nor any of its provisions are 
recognised as such by English Law and 
cannot, therefore, be invoked in anyjudicial tribunal in the country. It is this 
central issue that the draft programmeignores, relying instead on piecemeal and 
isolated improvements. Important as these 
are-and we have cited a number above-
they are no substitute for a bill of rightsnow being urged by an increasing number 
of people, politicians, lawyers, judges and 
others. 


fabian society 


The Fabian Society exists to further 
socialist education and research. It is 
affiliated to the Labour Party, both nationally 
and locally, and embraces all shades 
of Socialist opinion within its ranks-left,
right and centre. 

Since 1884 the Fabian Society has enrolled 
thoughtful socialists who are prepared to 
discuss the essential questions of democratic 
socialism and relate them to practical 
plans for building socialism in a 
changing world. 

Beyond this the Society has no collective 
policy. It puts forward no resolutions of 
a political character, but it is not an organisation 
of armchair socialists. Its members 
are active in their Labour Parties, Trade 
Unions and Co-operatives. They are representative 
of the labour movement, practical 
people concerned to study and discuss 
problems that matter. 

The Society is organised nationally and 
locally. The national Society, directed by 
an elected Executive Committee, publishes 
pamphlets, and holds schools and conferences 
of many kinds. Local Societies-
there are one hundred of them-are self 
governing and are lively centres of discussion 
and also undertake research. 

Enquiries about membership should be 
sent to the General Secretary, Fabian 
Society, 11 Dartmouth Street, London, 
SW1H 9BN; telephone 01-930 3077. 

the authors 

Over one hundred members of the Fabian 
Society have contributed to this pamphlet 
either by taking part in the discussions 
which led to the reports of the individual 
tasks forces or by writing sections of 
those reports. 

Cover design by Dick Leadbetter. Printed 
by Civic Press Limited (Tu), Civic Street, 
Glasgow G4 9RH. 

ISBN 7163 0414 7 


recent fabian pamphlets 

research series 

Rend7ln~_e_Eui~~r _____________________4

268 ~. -e~-a__do~thr_s--~~q--al~tyfo___w_o_men ~0~p 

291 David Stephen 
292 John Gyford, Stephen Haseler 
294 John Southgate 
295 A. H. ~arshall 
297 Della Adam Nevitt 
298 Jim Skinner 
299 S. F. Kiss in 
300 Chri topher Foster 
301 Kees ~axey 
302 Arthur Gillette 
303 Felicity Bolton, Jennie Laishley 
304 Tessa Blackstone 
305 0. Kahn-Freund, Bob Hepple 
306 Nicholas Deakin (ed) 

Immigration and race relations 25pSocial democracy: beyond revisionism 30pAgricultural trade and the EEC 30pNew revenues for local government 25pFair deal for householders 25pCollective bargaining and inequality 20pCommunists: all revisionists now? 40pPublic enterprise 30pFrom Rhodesia to Zimbabwe 45pCuba's educational revolution 45pEducation for a multi-racial Britain 20pFirst schools of the future 25pLaws against strikes 85pImmigrants in Europe 40p 

tracts 


399 R. H. S. Crossman 
400 Anne Lapping (ed) 
402 Anthony Wedgwood Benn 
403 Thomas Balogh 
404 Anthony Crosland 
406 Giles Radice, J. 0. N. Vickers 
408 Eric Deakins 
409 Wayland Kennet and others 
410 Anthony Crosland 
411 Dennis ~arsden 
412 Jeremy Bray 
413 ~ichael Stewart 

young fabian pamphlets 

Paying for the social services 20pCommunity action 40pThe new politics: a socialist reconnaissance 25pLabour and inflation 40pA social democratic Britain 15pThe industrial relations bill 15p 
EEC problems for British agriculture 25pSovereignty and multinational companies 30pTowards a Labour housing policy 20pPoliticians, equality and comprehensives 30pThe politics of the environment 25pLabour and the economy: a socialist strategy 35p 

17 Colin Crouch (ed) 
22 ~. Blades, D. Scott 
23 Colin Crouch 
24 Elizabeth Durkin 
27 Isla Calder 
28 Colin Crouch, Stephen ~ennell 
29 Russell Lansbury 
30 James Belliru 
Students today 
What price Northern Ireland? 
Politics in a technological society 
Hostels for the mentally disordered 
Our children's teachers 
The universities : pressures and prospects 
Swedish social democracy 
30p20p30p15p30p45p25p25pBritish entry: Labour's nemesis 
books 
R. H. S. Crossman and others 
~argaret Cole 
Brian Abel-Smith and others 
B. Lapping and G. Radice (eds) 
Peter Townsend and other 
Peter Townsend and others 
George Cunningham (ed) 
P. Townsend and N. Bo anquet (ed) 
New Fabian Essays 
The story of Fabian socialism 
Socialism and affluence 
~ore power to the people 
Social services for all? 
Tho fifth social service 
Britain and the world in the 1970s 
Labour and inequality 
cased £1.75 
paper £0.75 
paper £0.60 
paper £1.25 
paper £0.75 
paper £0.90 
cased £3.00 
paper £2.20