COMPANY MEETING
RICHARD COSTAIN LIMITED
IMPORTANT CONTRACT WORKS AIR RAID PROTECTION THE fifth ordinary general meeting of Richard Costain Limited, was held yesterday at Friends House, Euston Road, London, N.W.
Mr. R. Arthur Costain (the Chairman), in the course of his speech, said : There is a reduction in the net profits at £62,692 as against £71,025. In view of the extent to which the erection of Dolphin Square has occupied the services of the company this is not a matter for surprise. The directors' report indicates the approaching com- pletion of Dolphin Square and the satisfactory demand for the accommodation provided there. There is full justification for the claim that Dolphin Square, in its position on the river front with its three-and-a-half acres of quadrangle and gardens, its provision for home life, recreation and entertaining and for child welfare, will be found to reward the enterprise of your board.
We recommend a dividend of five per cent., less tax, carrying for- ward £28,875. The reserves will be increased by £14,272 and the carry-forward reduced by £2,7o7. The amounts put to reserves and carry-forward in the period of the company's existence would have been sufficient to provide, if distributed as dividend, as addi- tional dividend at the rate of five per cent. for each year.
Contract works have been carried out by the company during the year, including work for the Iranian Government, London County Council, Local Authorities, and important- companies, and the ser- vices of the company continue to be sought in this class of work. The sales of houses this year to the present date on our Elm Park Estate are distinctly better than at this date last year.
CONSTRUCTION OF SHELTERS.
On the-general outlook there is one aspect of the defence needs of the country that naturally has a bearing on the prospects for the building and contracting industry. Your directors early realised that when the Government's plans for air raid protection had matured there would be an immediate new call on the resources of the industry and, after a personal study of Continental methods and structures, they made certain arrangements to enable us quickly to provide air raid shelters of proved efficacy. In conjunction with the Westminster City Council two types of shelter have been erected at Caxton Hall, London, for public inspection and these have created public interest throughout the country.
There has been a great deal of hesitation in the placing of orders owing to uncertainty as to how expenditure of this kind would be regarded by the authorities in relation to income tax and local rating. The Board of Inland Revenue has now defined its attitude towards expenditure on air raid precautions, and its is anticipated that em- ployers of labour, local authorities and the public will quickly make up their minds as to the type of protection they are willing and able to provide. I am bound to say, however, that it has been a matter of surprise to me to learn that the Home Secretary, in a speech at Bristol, referring to expenditure allowable for income-tax purposes, indicated that those who had space available to dig deep and simply-constructed trenches must regard such expenditure as allowable, while those who construct special shelters either standing separately or as an addition to an existing structure would be treated as having spent money on capital account.
I would point out that the inevitable result of this will be that the newer industrial worki having ample site accommodation on the outskirts of great cities or in the country will be able, as an item of current expenditure, to provide for their employees excellent cover from the peril of bomb splinters, while those whose works and offices are situated in London and the crowded areas of other great cities, if they are not content with precautions of very doubtful efficacy against the explosive power and range of the modern bomb, and decide to provide effective splinter-proof shelters of the type most suited to the limited areas at their disposal, will have to build Out of capital, with no tax relief whatever and an unknown further liability for rating. I would urge that the Government find without further delay some method of encouragement—and that of a retrospective nature—so that those vitally essential works shall not be delayed fur- ther through doubt or uncertainty.
The report was unanimously adopted.
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