HC Deb 17 February 1932 vol 261 cc1628-9
71. Sir JOHN HASLAM

asked the President of the Board of Trade if, in his reply to the foreign firms who apply to his Department for details of available sites for new factories, he will impress upon them the advantages possessed by Lancashire for such purposes?

The PARLIAMENTARY SECRETARY to the BOARD of TRADE (Mr. Hore-Belisha)

It would, as I think my hon. Friend will realise, be impossible for any Government Department to adopt a suggestion whereby one area could be treated preferentially as compared with other areas.

Sir J. HASLAM

Does not the hon. Gentleman recognise that Lancashire has hundreds of empty factories where the streets are finished, where power and public services are laid on, and where a very high standard of efficiency exists among the workpeople, who live around the factories, and that it would be a tremendous saving.

Mr. HORE-BELISHA

I have no reason to dispute any of those statements.

Mr. VYVYAN ADAMS

Are those statements not also equally applicable to Yorkshire?

Mr. HORE-BELISHA

Yes, certainly.

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