BULLDING PROFITS by Colin Livett
The August edition of Labour Research serves as a useful reminder to Labour thet nationalisation of building land will not by itself, reduce the cost of housing sufficiently to solve the country's problems, It shows that trading profits of the 20 largest contractera, despite the virtual cessation of building for the first three months of the year, stood at £33,646,000 in 1963, 84% above the 1962 level, Over % of this was made by Wimpey (£6, 838,000) and McAlpine (£5,668,000) alone. Total dividend paid out was £2,682 ,000 ~ an increase of 19% over the previous year. The profits in building materials (including bricks, cement, sanitary ware, paint and timber) zoomed by 9% to £34,759,000. In the latter category profits were particularly high in the brick indust?y =- a reminder that private enterprise combines high profit rates with inefficiency. |