HC Deb 26 October 1939 vol 352 cc1534-5
4. Mr. David Adams

asked the Minister of Labour what amount of capital has been spent in the purchase of the land and in the laying out of the Team Valley Trading Estate, Gateshead; and what amount of capital has been used in the building and equipment of the factories upon the estate?

Mr. E. Brown

The sums advanced to North Eastern Trading Estates, Limited, are about £1,000,000, for the acquisition, general development, and administration of the Team Valley Trading Estate, and about £735,000 for factory construction. I have no information as to the amount spent by the tenants of factories on equipping them for production.

5. Mr. Adams

asked the Minister of Labour, in view of the great expenditure of public and private moneys in the establishment of factories on the Team Valley estate to develop new industries, what does he propose in the way of the provision of work immediately so that this experiment of the Government will not speedily end in failure and great unemployment?

Mr. Brown

Steps have been taken to draw the attention of contract-placing Departments to the facilities afforded by the industrial undertakings established on the trading estates and elsewhere in the Special Areas with assistance in one form or another from the Special Areas Fund, the Treasury, Special Areas Reconstruction Association, and/or the Nuffield Trust. Many of these undertakings are already busily engaged on the production of goods for which there is an immediate demand. The adaptation of others to forms of activity different from those originally contemplated is a matter primarily for the promoters of the undertakings themselves, but arrangements have been made for the special adviser to the Nuffield Trustees to devote his whole-time services to the task of assisting them.

Mr. Adams

While thanking the Minister for his reply, is it not the fact that many of these factories have been closed for eight weeks and that technical employés are still awaiting work?

Mr. Brown

I am quite aware that there is naturally a difference in the demand now for what these factories produce as compared with peace time, but we are doing all we can, and I have received communications from other hon. Members about this matter.

Mr. Hicks

When the right hon. Gentleman is inviting firms to use the Team Valley Trading Estate, will he encourage those firms who pay trade union rates?