1. Mr. W. Joseph Stewartasked the Minister of Labour whether he is aware that in the township of South Hylton, county Durham, there is a large percentage of the insured workers unemployed; and what is being done to bring new industries into this area, apart from the Pallion Trading Estate?
§ The Minister of Labour (Mr. Ernest Brown)The present live register consists of 193 men, 7 women and 25 juveniles. I have every expectation that a number of shipyard workers included in these figures will shortly obtain employment as a result of the Government's recent measures for assisting the shipbuilding industry. The Pallion Trading Estate should serve to draw attention to the facilities for establishing new industries in this area, and the Commissioner is always ready to consider applications from suitable undertakings.
Mr. StewartIs the right hon. Gentleman aware that in Sunderland itself there are approximately 17,000 or 18,000 unemployed and that they would more than meet the demand for the shipyards, and can he not see his way to ask the Commissioner for the Special Areas to introduce new light industries into this township in order to find work for at least a percentage of these people, who have been unemployed for a very long time?
§ Mr. BrownThe hon. Member knows that the Commissioner is always trying to attract the attention of all industrialists to the potentialities of these areas, and that is why we have proceeded first along the lines of the big trading estate in one part of the county and a small one in the other. It is very hard at the moment to dissipate our energies there.
Mr. StewartMay I point out that the trading estates will have no effect upon South Hylton itself, but will help to meet the needs of Sunderland?
§ Mr. BrownThe fact that these estates are established will draw the attention of industrialists, who will have reason to know the potentialities of the whole area.