Labour Governments In The 1960’s And 1970’s.

13 Pages 3367 Words

actually started a couple of years before Labour took control. The Conservative government set up the National Economic Development Council (NEDC) in 1962 in an attempt to bring together the government, industry and Trade Union’s. It was intended to be a way of discussing, and hopefully agreeing, a national economic assessment that could help to improve economic performance and reduce wage and price rises. However, the NEDC did not actually have any powers to implement any of its ideas. Instead it was used to produce reports, forecasts and set targets, so when Labour took over in 1964, it felt obliged to make even more optimistic assessments.

Many people criticized the ‘dead hand’ of the Treasury over national economic policy so the Department of Economic Affairs (DEA) was set up. However, the DEA was doomed from the start. It lacked a clear purpose and powers of action, and Whitehall departments were unwilling to give up their old responsibilities. The Treasury kept financial and monetary policy and public expenditure; the Board of Trade kept control over investment grants; the Ministry of Technology took over control of the government’s research and development spending; the Ministry of Housing and Local Government continued to operate the system of physical planning controls; and the Cabinet Office kept responsibility for providing economic statistics. The only area where the DEA had complete control was prices and incomes policy, which was only because of the effort put in by George Brown. When Brown left in 1966, the DEA stopped having much relevance at all and was eventually abolished in 1969.

The DEA did manage to produce the first National Plan, which turned out to be quite a presentational success for the government. The plan produced the basis for increased growth, efficient use of Britain’s resources and effective regional policies. It was designed to achieve a 25% increase in national output bet...