§ 6 and 21. Mr. Hector Hughesasked the Secretary of State for Scotland (1) how many new advance factories he plans to erect in and near the city of Aberdeen in the immediate future; where each will be located; when the work on each will commence; and when that work, according to his estimate, will be completed;
(2) whether he has now considered the plans made by the Government of Northern Ireland to attract there new industries by building advance factories, by offering factory space at reduced rents, and by a flat freight rate for transport of factory products; and if he will now devise and 5 publish similar plans to attract new industries to Aberdeen and North-East Scotland.
§ The Parliamentary Secretary to the Board of Trade (Mr. John Rodgers)I have been asked to reply.
Since Aberdeen and North-East Scotland are not in a Development Area, the Board of Trade have no power to build advance factories there or to offer factory sites on preferential terms. The inducements which the Government are offering to attract new industry to places of high unemployment are well known and are considered more appropriate to the circumstances of Great Britain than those available in Northern Ireland under the separate legislation enacted by the Northern Ireland Government.
§ Mr. HughesDoes the Parliamentary Secretary realise that it is most unsatisfactory for the President of the Board of Trade to reply to a Scottish question of this sort, especially as the Secretary of State for Scotland has promised advance factories of this kind and they are badly needed? Will the Parliamentary Secretary who has replied get in touch with the Secretary of State for Scotland with a view to inducing him to redeem the promises he has made?
§ Mr. RodgersI am constantly in touch with my right hon. Friend the Secretary of State for Scotland, and I remind the hon. and learned Gentleman that we are building one advance factory in Scotland on an experimental basis at Coatbridge at the moment.