HC Deb 19 March 1957 vol 567 cc185-6
8. Mr. Bence

asked the Minister of Labour what steps he is taking to find employment for the unemployed in the Burgh of Clydebank.

Mr. Iain Macleod

New industrial development has been fostered in this part of the Scottish Development Area by my right hon. Friend the President of the Board of Trade and will provide additional employment in the course of this year. My local officers are doing all they can to put those who are unemployed in touch with employers requiring workers.

Mr. Bence

Is the Minister aware that we have redundancy in Dumbarton at the Blackburn Company and redundancy at another company on Clydebank, and we have a fall in employment at the Scotstoun factory of Leyland, the old Albion Motors, and the situation on the Clyde has become very serious? Will he consult his right hon. Friends to see whether some employment could be brought not only to Blackburn's in Dumbarton but to other factories in the neighbourhood where production is falling off?

Mr. Macleod

Yes, I will certainly consult in order to see what we can do. I agree that it is an area with special problems. There are some hopes of improvement there; the hon. Gentleman probably knows that the Goodyear Tyre factory will make an important contribution in Cydebank in the course of the year.

Mr. Lee

Does not the inference from the Minister's answers to previous Questions and to this Question show that the decontrol of industrial building is having the effect of providing unwanted or unneeded factories in some areas to the detriment of factory building in Development Areas, and will he reimpose industrial building control in order to make sure that factories are built in the Development Areas and not outside?

Mr. Macleod

I do not think that, even from those two figures, one can draw such a wide generalisation as that.

Mr. Lawson

Will the Minister bear in mind that unemployment and employment prospects are so bad in Scotland that there are four times as many unemployed as unfilled vacancies? Will he bear that in mind?

Mr. Macleod

Yes, I will; but it is fair also to say, as the hon. Gentleman knows, because I have pointed this out to him before, that the trends in Scotland have been steadily improving for a long time, which I am delighted to see, and even in the slight recession we had last year the rate of increase in unemployment in Scotland was very much less than it was for Great Britain as a whole.