The powers of the Committee were subsequently extended as follows:
(i) The grants could be increased from 30 per cent. to 60 per cent. of the wages bill.
(ii) The Committee was authorized to assist, in addition to local authorities, (a) “public bodies”—being any board, commission, rating authority or trustees, or other body or persons who manage or undertake works in pursuance of statutory powers, not being a body trading for profit, and (b) through the local authority—boards of guardians, distress committees and voluntary agencies.
A sum of £2,000,000 was placed at the Committee’s disposal for the financial year 1921-22, and a further sum of £630,000 for 1922-23. All this money has been allocated, though not spent (see Table p. 189), and has provided, or is providing, direct employment for approximately 110,000 men for varying periods. Nearly as many more are indirectly employed in the preparation of materials for use on the approved works in factories, workshops, quarries, etc. Almost 3,000 applications from local authorities have been considered in detail, of which over 2,000 have been granted. The total capital cost of the works so financially assisted is estimated at approximately £9,000,000.
The Extended Scheme of 1921
In September 1921, the Government directed the Unemployment Grants Committee to undertake the administration of a further scheme for the relief of unemployment through local authorities. The new scheme provided for giving to local authorities, who put in hand works of public utility for the relief of unemployment, financial assistance on the following basis:
(a) In the case of revenue-producing works: Grants equivalent to 50 per cent. of the interest for five years on loans raised for a period of not less than 10 years in order to meet expenditure oil approved schemes.
(b) In the case of non-revenue-producing works: Grants equal to 65 per cent. of the interest and sinking fund charges on loans, raised to meet expenditure on approved schemes for a period of half the term of the loan, subject to a maximum period of fifteen years’ grant. Both classes of grants were conditional on the work being commenced before January 1, 1922, and completed before March 31, 1923. The commencing date was, however, subsequently extended. A provisional limit of £10,000,000 was originally fixed as the total capital value of the approved works to which these two grants were to be applied. Local authorities, however, took up the Government proposals with so much enthusiasm, and the work of examining and approving the Schemes was accomplished so expeditiously, that by the end of 1921 schemes to the capital value of nearly £10,000,000 had been approved, and many others were under consideration.
The Government accordingly decided, in December 1921, to increase from £10,000,000 to £13,000,000 the capital value of the works which might be approved for these grants; and on the further development of the work, in January 1922, again extended the limit from £13,000,000 up to £18,000,000. Works up to the limit are certain to be approved. Up to May 31, 1922, the capital value of the works approved was:
| Revenue-producing works | £4,587,005 |
| Non-revenue-producing works | 12,655,358 |
| Total | £17,242,363 |