Catalogue description Board of Trade: Industries and Manufactures Department: Furniture Development Council: Minutes

The Furniture Development Council (FDC) was set up by the Furniture Industry Development Council Order 1948, under the provisions of the Industrial Organisation and Development Act 1947, and came into being on 1 January 1949.

The FDC originally had a wide range of functions but for many years it existed solely to collect the statutory research levy which it passed to the Furniture Industry Research Association (FIRA). The maximum rate of levy permitted was 50p per £1,000 of turnover i.e. 0.05 per cent and it applied only to the manufacture of furniture of a type commonly used for domestic purposes.

The full FDC membership consisted of 18 members, three of whom were independent, whilst the remainder were drawn from both sides of manufacturing industry plus one from the retail trade. All were unpaid with the exception of the part-time Chairman, whose salary was paid from the gross levy receipts.

By 1980 approximately 96 per cent of FDC levy income was being transferred to FIRA where typically it formed about 38 per cent of the Association's gross annual funding. Some 1700 companies were registered with the Council at the end of 1980.

Following consultations with the industry, it was decided to abolish the levy and dissolve the FDC with effect from 31 December 1982 in accordance with the Furniture Development Council (Dissolution) Order 1981 (No. 142) made under Section 8 of the 1947 Act, which came into force on 1 December 1981. Under Article 3(1) of the 1981 Order, the property, rights and liabilities of the FDC vested in the Secretary of State for Industry from 31 December 1982. In practice, this mainly meant ensuring the collection of outstanding levy debts and remitting the monies collected to FIRA.