§ 24. Mr. Goughasked the Minister of Food whether he is satisfied with the home production of sugar; and if he will encourage and expand the sugar beet industry by the immediate erection of a sugar beet factory in Sussex.
§ Major Lloyd GeorgeIt is very gratifying that record outputs of home-produced sugar have been achieved during the past two seasons. The reconstruction of the sugar beet factories which is at present going on will be a help and encouragement to the industry, but the building of another factory is ruled out at present because of the limitations on capital investment.
§ Mr. GoughWould my right hon. and gallant Friend agree that plans were well advanced three or four years ago for the building of a sugar beet factory in the neighbourhood of Chichester, but were then delayed owing to a financial crisis of the kind which used to occur year by year in those days? Would he give us his assurance that at the first possible moment this extremely essential factory will be built?
§ Major Lloyd GeorgeI could not give an assurance, because we have to remember that we have commitments with Commonwealth countries with regard to taking sugar produced there. The extension and improvement of factories here, when completed, will make the factories quite capable of dealing with the home crop, and as it would take at least three years to build one of these factories it could not make an immediate contribution to the current difficulty.
§ Dr. KingWould the Minister bear in mind the claims which Hampshire farmers have been making for a long time for such a factory?
§ Major Legge-BourkeWould my right hon. and gallant Friend bear in mind that sugar beet growers, in East Anglia in particular, are very anxious for him to do what my hon. Friend the Member for Horsham (Mr. Gough) has asked him to do, to build a factory in the south? At present, the southern crop holds up the taking of the East Anglian crop by East Anglian factories.
§ Mr. HaymanWill the Minister also bear in mind the south-west of England, when a new factory is to be provided, because at present our sugar beet crop has to travel a very long distance?
§ Major Lloyd GeorgeI was going to suggest to my hon. Friend the Member for Horsham (Mr. Gough) that Chichester was not the only part of Britain that wanted a sugar beet factory and that there are claims from many parts of the country. At the moment I can give no undertaking that a factory will be provided, because we are determined to go on with the modernisation of existing factories, which are sufficient to deal with our present crop.
§ Brigadier Prior-PalmerIs my right hon. and gallant Friend aware that sugar beet in the south of England has very of ten to go via Bristol in order to get to the north of England with consequent risk of frost to the crop, and that the expense is so great to the farmers that in a very short time the sugar beet crop in the south of England will become less and less? It is a valuable cleaning crop, but it will also have an effect on other cereal crops as well.
§ Major Lloyd GeorgeOn the question of transport costs, special arrangements have been made to help to meet them, and in the latest price adjustment made they have been taken into account.
§ Captain SoamesWill my right hon. and gallant Friend remember that there is a widespread demand not only from Sussex but from all the Southern counties for a sugar beet factory? Could not the difficulties be overcome?
§ Major Lloyd GeorgeThat is the original point, and the answer is that in existing circumstances it is not possible.
§ Mr. P. WellsWould the Minister discuss the matter with his colleague the Minister of Agriculture?