§ 36. Mr. Ness Edwardsasked the President of the Board of Trade if he will use his powers under the Distribution of Industry Act to provide for a new ordnance factory programme in South Wales.
§ Mr. Ness EdwardsMay I point out that Question No. 36 should refer to a new advance factory programme and not to a new ordnance factory programme?
§ Mr. ErrollI am grateful to the right hon. Gentleman for having notified me of this earlier, so that I can now give the right Answer.
My right hon. Friend is always prepared to consider sympathetically the building of factories to meet the specific requirements of firms that wish to set up in needy parts of the area; but he does not consider that the building of factories in advance of known tenants would be making the best use of national resources.
§ Mr. Ness EdwardsIs not the Parliamentary Secretary aware that this method of building advance factories in anticipation of need was one of the means of conquering unemployment in the Development Areas, and will not he give further consideration to this matter to meet the growing need arising from unemployment?
§ Mr. ErrollI recognise that this method may have been appropriate in 1945 and the years immediately following the war, when factory accommodation of any sort was in short supply. but our experience today is that firms prefer to have factories tailor-made to suit their individual requirements.
§ Mr. J. GriffithsIs not it a fact that factories of varying sizes were provided and were a great success, and would not that be a better use of national resources than to allow thousands of people to be unemployed and factories not used at all?
§ Mr. ErrollIt would be most inadvisable to build a number of factories 767 which might not be suitable to tenants as yet unspecified, and which might remain untenanted and unoccupied for long periods of time.