§ 26. Mr. Shinwellasked the President of the Board of Trade what is the nature of the representations he has received 195 from the Easington District Council on the subject of new industry in the area of their administration.
§ Mr. ErrollThe Clerk of the Easington Rural District Council wrote to the Board on 10th January asking that renewed efforts should be made to induce new industry to come to the Easington area, and in particular to Peterlee. In reply he was assured that we would do all we could to encourage suitable firms to go to this area.
§ Mr. ShinwellIs the right hon. Gentleman aware that the Local Employment Act has failed? It has not reduced unemployment as the right hon. Gentleman's predecessor prophesied it would. In view of the many problems of unemployment, not only in the North-East but in the Midlands and elsewhere, nothing short of a boost by the Government in the direction of capital investment and expansion will be of any avail. Why do not the Government, instead of employing deflationary measures, have regard to the present situation and try to deal with it in a sensible way?
§ Mr. ErrollAll-round inflation would not necessarily mean that factories and industries would go to the places in which the right hon. Gentleman is interested. The Local Employment Act has certainly not failed. It has done a great deal of good work already, but I am not complacent about those places which are still very much my anxious concern.
§ Mr. PentlandCould the same answer be made in regard to Easington or any other areas in the North-East as the right hon. Gentleman gave to my supplementary on a previous Question?