HC Deb 07 March 1956 vol 549 cc2267-78

Motion made, and Question proposed, That this House do now adjourn.—[Mr. Godber.]

11.38 p.m.

Mr. J. Grimond (Orkney and Shetland)

I am going to speak tonight about some of the most romantic islands in Britain—places like Foula, the Edge of the World, and Fair Isle, which has given its name to a famous style of knitwear. But life in these islands is not always romantic—and the time has come to do more than pay lip service to their history and beauty.

For a long time there has been a drift from all the outlying islands of Orkney and Shetland. The population of the North Isles of Orkney has fallen by about 40 per cent. since 1921. Although help in various forms has been given to them, no Government has faced up to their peculiar problems, even, if need be, by unorthodox methods. No one pretends that their problems can be solved by the Government acting alone. No one pretends that the solution will be easy, but the time is now approaching when a Government decision must be made.

Either the Government must concede that such islands, and, indeed, other Island and Highland districts, differ radically from much of the rest of the country and require different treatment, or they must say frankly that they are prepared to see these islands gradually put down to grazing without further struggle. To go on as at present, pumping in the annual subsidies, paying lip service to the virtues of the islanders, but taking no adequate steps to create the basic conditions and inject the capital needed to enable them to lead a reasonable life, is fair neither to the islanders themselves nor to the country as a whole.

Let me outline the position in the smallest of the islands. There are 47 Fair Islanders left, 29 of whom are over 40. There is only one unmarried girl between 15 and 40, and 9 children. I have here an extract from a recent letter to me from someone on the island. He says: The outlook at present for the Isle is pretty grim…the majority of the people are all past middle life and the few young men are not willing to hang on much longer unless something can be started in the Isle to enable them to make a livelihood. We do not want to see the Isle evacuated if we can possibly stop it. Then there is Foula. There are 54 people on that island-16 fewer than a year ago, and two further families are talking of going. There is the same situation here as there is in Fair Isle; there is not sufficient livelihood to be made, no harbour or adequate pier. On both islands the boats have to be hauled up all winter, and there will soon be no crew for them. There is the same story at Papa Stour. There are 39 people who belong to the island; they have no harbour or pier. The missionary writes to me: Last August, we received our annual supply of coal—somewhere around 40 tons. At the same time, 18 head of cattle were despatched with the coal boat. It was necessary for the boat to make three trips at £50 each time in freight on cattle and coal. The larger islands, too, are losing their people for lack of transport and the chances of a decent livelihood. Fetlar, a big and fertile island in Shetland, is down to a population of about 140. Skerries has no adequate steamer service, and Whalsay no harbour. The roads in Yell and Unst are a disgrace to this century. But it is on the smaller Shetland islands that the position has now nearly been reached of "develop or evacuate."

Let us look at Orkney. As the Secretary of State knows, the North Isles have addressed a petition to him setting out their circumstances. They tell the same story of depopulation. I can supply the right hon. Member with a detailed census of the present position on many of these islands. They are not yet down to the level of Fair Isle, Foula or Papa Stour, but at North Ronaldsay there is no adequate pier; the cargo boat calls once a fortnight; the freight charges are crushing. There are still 182 people on the island, the majority being middle-aged or old. In the South Islands of Orkney, seven people are left on Fara, a handful at Rackwick, and very few on Hoy. Egilsay and many other islands tell the same story.

What do these islands need? For one thing, they need employment, to hold the younger people and bring in new blood. If the population is to be kept on Fair Isle and Foula, for instance, some effort has to be made to organise better the knitting—hand or machine—and perhaps weaving. On many of the larger islands—Eday, for instance—agriculture could be much further developed. Perhaps fishing could be revived on some. Mr. Gear, from Foula, tells me that it is 60 years since the Congested Districts Board sent out an engineer to survey for a harbour—but nothing has been done. Secondly, transport must be improved and freights lowered. Foula is cut off for months at a time. Fair Isle has at best a weekly service of a small boat across one of the roughest bits of water in the world. To Papa Stour there is no regular cargo service.

I have continually raised the question of freight charges and transport. Two years ago I warned the Government that the inter-island services must be improved, but that far from improving them the ship owners could not replace existing boats. All the facts were set out in a memorandum I sent to the Ministry of Transport in 1953.

This question of transport and freight is reaching a critical stage. The Government can no longer shelve it. Messrs. Bremner, in Orkney, as the Secretary of State knows, are talking of giving up their service. The Orkney Steam Navigation cannot replace its ships, which are expensive and out of date let alone provide the third, faster ship which is urgently required. Even the North Company is being driven desperate by higher costs. Diesel oil cost £5 a ton before the war; now it costs £13 19s. a ton, and it goes up again this month. It costs the Orkney Steam Navigation £140 per day to run its ships.

Wage rates, of course, are up. For a recent Sunday afternoon's work of four hours discharging fish at Aberdeen, the North Company had to pay £5 6s. 8d. per man. The charges for ship repairs and surveys are exorbitant. The North Company pays £100,000 a year, and it even costs £1,000 for the annual survey of the "Orcadia." As a result, freight charges are crippling. I have given the full schedules to the Scottish Office several times, but I will give one or two examples.

A cargo for Papa Stour, as I have said, costs £50 from the mainland of Shetland. Though it can be argued that freight charges to Kirkwall or Lerwick are lower than to the Hebrides, the outlying islands have to pay further freight, harbour and lorry charges on top of these, which make the total much larger. To move cattle from the North Isles to Kirkwall costs about 23s. per animal. Potatoes cost 23s. 4d. per ton, and bricks, 36s. 8d. per ton.

Look at the inadequate passenger services. It takes a full day to get to some of the outlying islands. When are we to take a step forward with the aeroplane services? I am glad to see a representative here of the Ministry of Transport and Civil Aviation. We learn of helicopters becoming commonplace throughout the world. Members of the Royal Family and generals fly to inspections in them; commercial firms use them. We, who had an internal air service before the war and who need them for the daily necessities of life and particularly for medical cases, get no help. Rockets to the moon, perhaps, but no aircraft for Fair Isle or Ronaldshay.

Neither Fair Isle, Foula, Papa Stour, North Ronaldshay, Papa Westray, Elisay or Wyre has an adequate harbour or pier. Whalsay, one of the main fishing islands of Shetland, has, as I have said, no harbour. In spite of subsidies at the rate of millions a year for airports which, we might think, passengers themselves might well support, we cannot find £250,000 to supply these islands with piers.

Then, thirdly, there is the question of education, medical services and marketing of products. There are many others which I cannot touch on tonight, but of which the Scottish Office must be well aware. Let me kill two red herrings: it is no use referring this question again to the Highland Panel or to some other advisory body. That has been done. Action is now imperative. Unless steps are taken, the situation on some of these islands will pass the point of no return this year. If Fair Isle or Foula are evacuated, the repercussions will be widespread.

It is no good the Government saying that they have no powers. They took powers to give MacBrayne's £3¼ million and to spend a fortune on various projects which are no more necessary than some I have mentioned. The Development Commissioners and other agencies should be able to assist new industries by various methods of grants. The time has come when there must be a concentrated effort by all concerned to stop the downward trend on these islands and on many other islands all round the coasts of Britain.

I ask the Government to consider action under three heads. First, will they give assistance over the basic needs of these islands? I am not laying down tonight exactly how it should be done, whether by rebate of taxation, grants or loans, but it must be particularly directed to the matter of transport and freight. [An HON. MEMBER: "Hear, hear."] I am glad to have support from other people and assistance must also be given for land development and the development of new sources of employment. I suggest that, at the same time, the Government should try to improve the medical services on some of the more remote islands, and the roads and amenities on all.

Secondly, they should treat the situation on such islands as Fair Isle, Foula, and Papa Stour as a matter of real urgency. If there is evacuation, there will be an outcry all over Britain. It may be that a pilot scheme should be put into operation—I am not suggesting that this is the only thing which could be done—on one of the islands to see how far depopulation can be checked and, if possible, better prospects and new blood be brought to them. If these islands are not considered suitable for such a scheme, what about Fetlar or Eday? It is essential that some concentrated effort be made by all concerned to stop the rot and to create a confident outlook in the islands. They might take over a certain amount of land and get three or four families to work it at a guaranteed wage. That might be a constructive way of setting about a solution of the problem. It is, at least, a suggestion worth consideration.

Thirdly, I would ask the Government to pay special attention to the future of the boat services which are an essential link between the mainlands of Orkney and Shetland and these outlying islands. As the Secretary of State knows, something must be decided soon about Messrs. Bremner, and it is difficult to see what future Fair Isle, Foula, Papa Stour, or Egilsay, Wyre and Rousay, can have unless transport services are greatly improved. Is there any chance of further help from the Post Office—I gladly acknowledge the help given—or from the Armed Services; for instance, in providing more frequent mail services to Fair Isle, or light on Hoy, where the Admiralty have a powerful electric plant?

I do not expect detailed answers from the Government tonight, but I would like an assurance that they are determined to take the lead in tackling these problems. I can assure them that it will get the co-operation of all concerned. I have a large amount of information and many suggestions which I shall be happy to put at its disposal over and above those which I have made this evening, and have left with it on previous occasions. We must not, however, delude ourselves that the present policies, in spite of all that can be said for them, or the creation of new advisory services and bodies such as the Crofters' Commission, will stop depopulation and give us the full development of these islands, or, indeed, of the Highlands, and other islands round the coast of Britain.

11.52 p.m.

The Joint Under-Secretary of State for Scotland (Mr. J. Henderson Stewart)

The depopulation of the remoter parts of the country, and particularly of the Highlands and islands, is a matter which has frequently concerned the House. I can remember many occasions when I took part in some debate on the matter, as the hon. Member for East Aberdeenshire (Sir R. Boothby) has done in the past. It is, in a way, perhaps unfortunate that, through pressure of business, opportunities for the House to examine this kind of problem appear to become fewer and fewer.

That is why the House should welcome, as I do, the decision of the hon. Member for Orkney and Shetland (Mr. Grimond) to raise tonight the special problems of the small outlying islands of the far North. I am much obliged to him for his courtesy for advising me about the sort of matters he intended to raise.

In a general sense, these problems are not peculiar to his constituency. They are to be found in some degree more or less severe in all distant areas. Living standards rise in other parts of the country; peoples' taste change; there is a ceaseless, inevitable, and natural desire in the younger people to seek wider opportunities for advancement, and to enjoy a larger share of the rapidly improving and diverse amenities to be found on the mainland. We cannot stop that movement of young people any more than King Canute could stop the tide.

As I see it, the question tonight is whether, by some means, that movement can be slowed, if it cannot be stopped. There are few of us who would not like to slow it. Most of us, no doubt, would say that politically, socially, economically, even strategically, it would be of advantage to the nation if depopulation of the islands and glens of our country could be checked. The problem is how to do it. I do not think that this House is capable of answering that question; certainly, not without the fullest advice of those best qualified and specially appointed to offer advice.

Although the hon. Member was, I thought, a little sceptical about the advantages we gain from various bodies, I feel, nevertheless, that we have to turn to them. In the case of Orkney and Shetland there are at least three public bodies upon whose advice this House must rely if it is to take any action at all. There are the elected county councils of the two groups of islands, whose knowledge in this matter must, of course, be most intimate. There is the Highland Panel, of which the hon. Member is a Member. It was set up eight years ago by the Labour Government and has done very good work. The Highland Panel has gained great experience and its knowledge of many of these matters must be quite unique.

Recently, there has been the Crofters' Commission, which all of us think is an excellent creation. It has a very special concern with some of the problems which the hon. Member has raised. There is a fourth body concerned in the case of one of the islands, Fair Isle. That, of course, is the National Trust for Scotland in which the hon. Member I am sure has a very close interest because of his admirable service to that body in the past. As the hon. Member knows very well, the Chairman of the Highland Panel recently met representatives of the National Trust, which owns the island of Fair Isle now, and discussed the problems of the island.

Those problems are twofold. First, there is the need for improved amenities as the hon. Member described, roads, boat services, houses, water, the possibility of electricity supply, and all that. Secondly, there is the possibility of introducing new industries or, as the hon. Member put it, injecting new capital. That is the crux of the matter here and elsewhere. Can this ancient and historic Fair Isle support a viable population today on twentieth century standards of living? That is the crux of the matter in these remote islands.

I am told that the National Trust, the Highland Panel and the county council are all examining these matters at present. But the Highland Panel is doing more. It has also been considering similar problems of the group of North Isles of Orkney, to which the hon. Member referred. Next week, in fact, five days hence, it is setting out to consider the problems on the spot, a very proper thing to do. It is to meet the local people and local shipping companies to obtain their views and see for itself what can or should be done to improve the conditions and to develop the native economy of those northern islands.

All the matters the hon. Member referred to, I agree, are of the utmost importance—new industries, piers, harbours, freight charges and, of course, the possibility of introducing an air service there and to Shetland. I think it would be true to say—although I am speaking subject to correction from the Ministry of Transport and Civil Aviation—that we are not likely to get very far with the development of air transport until the much looked for twin-Pioneer we are making in Scotland is in full production and active operation. I am not speaking at all officially, but I have the greatest possible confidence in that machine and hope it will help us in many of these problems.

We must all welcome this sense of activity and congratulate these public concerns and those who are doing this work voluntarily on the initiative they have shown. The Government anxiously and eagerly await the result of their examination, but let us be clear that the task confronting these public bodies, as it confronts the Scottish Office now, is not an easy one.

In the islands of Orkney and Shetland there is no single problem, and there is, similarly, no single solution. That, in- deed, is what the hon. Member has been telling us so eloquently tonight. According to the 1951 census, there were over 45 inhabited islands in Orkney and Shetland, varying considerably in size, in situation and in well-being. At one end of the scale, I might take the example the hon. Gentleman gave of Fair Isle, with a population of 65 and a native community of 47. At the other end of the scale, one might mention the other Orkney islands like South Ronaldsay and Westray which, though not without their difficulties I agree, have nevertheless attained a high degree of prosperity and whose future is not seriously in doubt at all.

Other examples of islands in that group that are doing well are Out-Skerries and Hamnavoe and Whalsey. The present population of the Out-Skerries has not varied greatly over the past 100 years, but it just happens that all these communities draw a livelihood from a prosperous local fishing industry, which accounts for their prosperity as compared with the other parts of the islands.

It is true, of course, that there has been a general fall in the population of the outer islands of Orkney and Shetland. Since 1911 it has declined by between 40 and 47 per cent. In some of the islands the decline has been even more steep. In Papa Stour, it has fallen by nearly 70 per cent. But in considering this matter there are two facts to be borne in mind. One is that to which I have referred—that this is not peculiar to Orkneys and Shetland. It is found every- where, in every part of Europe and in large parts of America. People are gradually moving from the more remote parts into the towns.

There is a second fact. When we speak of depopulation it does not necessarily mean that all these islands are in a desperate state and facing evacuation. I know that the hon. Member did not say that, but he seemed to feel it. I should like to make it plain that they are not all in that position even where they show a fall in population. The population of the outer islands of Orkney fell by 20 per cent. between 1931 and 1951, but half of this fall was due to the reduction of the size of families. That is not confined to Orkney and Shetland; it is common all over the country. With the increasing agricultural efficiency, most notable in Orkney, as everybody knows who has visited those islands, this decline in population proceeds, yet is accompanied by a marked increase in agricultural output. That is particularly so in the North Isles of Orkney, as we know.

Since 1931, for example, the number of poultry has gone up by 34 per cent., pigs have increased three-fold, cattle by one-third, and the only decline is in the number of sheep. Otherwise, there has been an all-round improvement. Taken overall the agricultural production of this island is substantially higher than it was 20 or 30 years ago, and it is obviously being maintained at a higher level today. We have the rather paradoxical situation of a combination of a small resident population with a higher agricultural output, leading inevitably to a higher standard of living for those who are there and that, after all, is what those people want.

In Shetland—I have been dealing mostly with Orkney—the economy depends mainly upon crofting, agriculture, knitting and fishing. Each of these, as the hon. Gentleman rightly said, has been the subject of intensive examination in past years. We have the Crofters' Commission, and, personally, I attach great hopes to its operations. One of its very first jobs was to undertake a fresh examination of the Shetlands. I very much hope that it may be able to advise us and to take action which will be generally helpful.

I know that there are 800 or so people unemployed in the Shetlands, but it is encouraging to find, in a recent issue of the Shetland News, headlines stating: Shetlands record year in 1955. White fish, tweed, hosiery booming. Herring value nearly doubled. Splendid summer weather and good harvest. More tourists than ever before. That indicates that, by and large, the Shetlanders seem to be doing reasonably well.

Before I conclude, I want to say a word about transport. The hon. Gentleman is quite right when he says that transport is a serious problem. The transport link with the mainland is, I think, good and efficient. The hon. Gentleman did not complain very much about it. His complaint was really with regard to the interisland services, about which I know there has been some criticism. The hon. Gentleman suggested that there ought to be some Government aid, and I know that that is being asked for.

The Government are not persuaded, at any rate at present, that the facts as now presented establish by themselves a case for financial assistance. For one thing, the maintenance of the essential communications between the Orkney islands needs not depend solely on the maintenance of the services as they at present exist. This is essentially a matter that must be examined on the spot, and it is one of the main matters which the Highland Panel is to examine next week. I really am not able to go further than that.

We are most sensible of the problem of freight charges, which are heavy, and of the inadequacy of the service. I quite understand that, because I have had a little experience of it. We should like to do what is right by these splendid men and women in the islands, but to recognise that is not automatically to say that we agree that there should be a subsidy, because we are not satisfied that it is necessary or is the right way of solving the problem. I am not able tonight to say what is the answer. Although we have had expert advice from these—

The Question having been proposed after Ten o'clock on Wednesday evening, and the debate having continued for half an hour. Mr. SPEAKER adjourned the House without Question put, pursuant to the Standing Order.

Adjourned at eight minutes past Twelve o'clock.