Planning Public Works For years economists have pointed out the
necessity, in any attempt to mitigate the effects of cyclical unemploy- ment and economic depression, of planning a programme of public expenditure for a substantial period ahead. Recog- nition of this necessity at last appears to have penetrated to the responsible Government officials. Last Friday the Ministry of Health issued a circular letter to local authorities asking them to undertake a survey of the capital expenditure and the programme of capital works which they proposed to undertake during the next five years, and to submit their proposals to the appropriate Government departments. The circular, however, gives the impression that the Govern- ment's desire for planned public expenditure arises more from the necessity of co-ordinating local defence plans on a national scale and of encouraging local authorities to postpone their less urgent public works in order the more rapidly to complete their A.R.P. schemes, than from appreciation of the potentialities of planned public works in off-setting a slump. In any case on both grounds the Government is certainly right in demanding such surveys from local authori- ties—the idea, no doubt, being to reserve non-urgent works for times of depression.
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