Catalogue description Ministry of Reconstruction: Records

Sub Committees of the first Reconstruction Committee included the Commercial and Industrial Policy Committee, the Demobilisation of the Army Committee, the Acquisition of Powers Committee and the Forestry Committee. Other bodies investigated agriculture, mining, employers associations, aspects of education and women's employment.

New sub committees formed by the second Reconstruction Committee included the Acquisition and Valuation of Land Committee, the Adult Education Committee, the Civil War Workers' Committee, the Local Government Committee and the Machinery of Government Committee. Other bodies investigated road transport and shipping.

Panels of the Reconstruction Committee itself included the short-lived Wages and Employment Panel, which dealt with the Whitley report and the creation of joint industrial councils, and which was subsequently absorbed into the Local Government Committee; and a panel dealing with housing, which considered problems associated with the supply of building materials, postwar controls on the acquisition of land, and state subsidies to private builders, and which drew up extensive programmes of public housing.

The various sections of the Advisory Council and the Women's Advisory Committee of the Ministry of Reconstruction all established subcommittees to deal with special subjects; various other new committees were created to supplement the work of those taken over from the Reconstruction Committee. Several were involved in the postwar recovery of industry and trade.

Some subcommittees investigated fiscal aspects of the problem, notably the Financial Risks Committee, the Financial Facilities for Trade Committee and the Currency and Foreign Exchanges Committee. Others considered more obvious aspects of industrial recovery - like the Committee on Trusts, the Engineering Trades (New Industries) Committee and the Committee on Storage and Transit. Concern over raw materials led to the creation of the Central Committee on Supplies of Materials.

Housing was the other main focus of attention. Several new bodies examined postwar plans; a Building Materials Supply Committee recommended controls on supply and distribution, the Housing (Financial Assistance) Committee examined the funding of postwar schemes, the Committee on the Increase of Rent and Mortgage (War Restriction Act) looked at the consequences of ending wartime controls.