Ministry of Production and Board of Trade: Regional Boards for Industry: Minutes...

The Regional Board for Industry, initially known as Area Boards, were first established by the Ministry of Supply in January 1940. Their membership consisted at first entirely of officials, namely area officers of the Supply departments and divisional controllers of the Ministry of Labour, with full-time secretaries appointed by the Ministry of Supply. The boards were set up in each Civil Defence Region to promote maximum war production and to co-ordinate the activities of the government agencies concerned with essential stores. In May 1940 the boards passed to the Ministry of Labour, whose divisional controllers became chairmen of the boards; but they returned to the Ministry of Supply for a short period before their work was brought, in July 1940, under the inter-departmental direction of the Industrial Capacity Committee of the Production Council, though their staff remained on the payroll of the Ministry of Supply. They remained with the Industrial Capacity Committee until May 1941 when they passed to the Production Executive Committee, and were renamed Regional Boards. They were entrusted with additional duties connected with capacity registers, factory and storage accommodations, transport and raw materials. When the boards were reconstituted in July 1940, these committees, with two exceptions, ceased to meet, their functions in effect passing to the industrial members of the boards, though they were not formally disbanded.

On 7 February 1942 a Minister of Production was appointed, and one of his first measures was to set up a Committee, under the chairmanship of Sir Walter Citrine, to examine the constitution and functions of the Regional Boards. As a result of the Citrine Committee's report (Cmd. 6360) a general reorganisation took place. The boards were to co-ordinate the regional work of departments in the sphere of essential stores production; to make proposals from the use of production capacity to the full; to advise on the provision and allocations of storage space; to co-operate with the Ministry of Works on emergency repairs to bomb-damaged factories; and to advise on such problems as transport, concentration of industries and the application of the Essential Works Order. On 13 July 1942 the Ministry of Production was established and the Regional Boards came under its control. The Regional Controllers of that Ministry became the chairmen of the boards.

At national level, the boards were connected with the National Production Advisory Council, of which their Vice-Chairmen were members. The National Production Advisory Council, later to become known as the National Production Advisory Council on Industry, took the place of the former Production Executive.

With the cessation of hostilities in 1945 the Government merged the Ministry of Production with the Board of Trade. In September 1945 the wartime Regional Boards were dissolved, and in October Regional Boards for Industry were set up in eleven areas, nine in England, and separate offices in Scotland and Wales. They came under the control of the Board of Trade. Independent part-time Chairmen were installed, and the boards consisted of three representatives from each side of industry, together with the Senior Regional Board representatives of departments concerned with industrial production: Board of Trade, Admiralty, Ministries of Supply, Labour, War Transport, Fuel and Power, Works and Town and Country Planning.

By 1947 a certain dissatisfaction was expressed by the boards over the limitation of work they were asked to do, and the lack of support they received from government departments. The then Paymaster General, H A Marquand, investigated these grievances and reported on 21 July 1947. Among the recommendations put forth in the report were: the Regional Boards and their Committees should be retained; non-members of the Federation of British Industries might be appointed, especially in Scotland; officials in all departments should be reminded of the functions of the Regional Boards, and efforts should be made to consult them about all matters falling within their terms of reference.

While the Marquand Report was still under consideration responsibility for the boards was transferred from the Board of Trade to the Minister for Economic Affairs in October 1947 and to the Treasury in November 1947. The boards were than strengthened numerically by increasing the number of industrial members to five and authorising them to treat industry as a whole. Mining, agriculture and transport, which had hitherto been outside their scope, were added.

Between 1947 and 1950 the boards were essentially advisory bodies. Occasionally they were called upon to act in an executive capacity. During the fuel crisis in 1946-1947 and in the winter of 1947-1948 their Fuel Allocation Committees played an important part in seeing that firms on essential work were supplied with coal. They also undertook to arrange electricity load-spreading in the years of low generating capacity.

In January 1950 a Committee chaired by Sir John Maud enquired into the regional organisation of the boards. Their value as a forum for discussion of problems affecting both sides of industry was stressed. The question of restoring to them some of their war-time executive powers was resisted. It was argued that their former powers were not applicable in peace-time. In February 1952 responsibility for servicing the boards, at Headquarters and in the regions, was transferred to the Board of Trade. The Treasury retained Ministerial control and the boards continued to be concerned with the whole of industry, and not only with industries under the direct control of the Board of Trade.

In 1953 the Hamilton Committee was asked to enquire into the constitution, scope and functions of the boards in relation to current conditions. The Committee pointed to three deficiencies: overall level of activity had been reduced by the return to peace-time conditions; there were regional variations in the level of activity; scope for consultation between the boards and government department tended to be limited. Among the recommendations made were that: local authorities should not be represented on the boards; their management should not be transferred to the Treasury; the Headquarters of the organisation should remain with the Board of Trade; they should continue to work under their existing terms of reference.

Henceforth the effectiveness of the boards declined, and during their last three or four years few subjects were put to them by department seeking advice. This lack of briefing tended to result in uniformed and inconclusive discussions, and served little useful purpose for the departments concerned. The decision to wind up the Regional Boards for Industry was taken in January 1965, at the closing meeting of the National Production Advisory Council on Industry, and control passed from the Board of Trade. Their successors were the Regional Economic Planning Councils and the Regional Economic Planning Boards. These were announced in the Commons on 10 December 1964 by the then Secretary of State for Economic Affairs, George Brown.