HC Deb 23 March 1953 vol 513 cc467-9
20. Mr. Edelman

asked the Minister of Supply how many of the 18,000 machine tools ordered from Europe and the United States of America were capable of being manufactured in Great Britain.

Mr. Sandys

Of the machine tools ordered abroad, some 4,000 were of special types unobtainable in the United Kingdom. About 4,000 were of types for which there was insufficient production capacity in this country. Some 10,000 were of types which could not be delivered by British manufacturers by the dates required without unduly interfering with production for domestic and overseas markets.

Mr. Edelman

Is it not remarkable that with a highly developed machine-tool industry like our own, we have to import so many machine tools at so high a cost from abroad, and would the right hon. Gentleman look into the structure of the machine-tool industry to see whether it might not be expanded to make our own industry self-equipping?

Mr. Sandys

I would remind the hon. Gentleman that nearly all these machine tools were ordered before the autumn of 1951. Since that date the number of orders for machine tools placed abroad has been more than offset by the number of previous orders which have been cancelled; in other words, since the autumn of 1951 there has been a net decrease in the number of orders for machine tools placed abroad.

Mr. Renton

Is it not a fact that we have a valuable export trade in machine tools, and bearing that fact in mind, and the fact that the industry at present is unable to satisfy the needs of the home market, is there not a strong case for increasing the allocation for capital development?

Mr. Lee

Would not the right hon. Gentleman agree that since the end of the war more than £50 million worth of dollar machine tools have been imported despite a rigorous screening before employers or users of machine tools are allowed to order in dollar countries? Does not that fact reveal that there is an urgent need for a large expansion of the British machine-tool industry?

Mr. Sandys

I think we would all welcome an expansion in this industry. It is a very fine industry, and the export possibilities are considerable, as my hon. Friend said a moment ago.

Sir H. Williams

Would my right hon. Friend be careful not to over-expand this industry so that we shall not have the same experience as after the last period of expansion when, in 1925 or thereabouts, about one-third of the firms went out of existence because of a slump in the demand for new capital equipment?

Mr. Sandys

As my hon. Friend knows, Conservative Governments do not expand or contract industry.