HC Deb 09 May 1962 vol 659 cc595-606

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

11.4 p.m.

Commander J. S. Kerans (The Hartlepools)

I wish to draw attention to the very high rate of unemployment which now exists in my constituency. In October, 1959 it stood at 5.9 per cent. Since then it has come down a little. For a short period it was as low as 3.8 per cent. Since then it has steadily risen, and the present figure is 6.4 per cent. Not very long ago it was 6.5 per cent., the highest in the North-East. It means that at the moment there are 2,234 men and women who are registered in the employment exchanges in both towns, and 1,774 of them are men. Whilst it is true that a small number of those men are not wholly unemployed but are on short-time working, nevertheless 1,539 men are wholly unemployed, which is a very high percentage.

I have put numerous Questions to the President of the Board of Trade, and in general terms I am invariably told that there are prospects of so many jobs ahead. Somehow these do not seem to materalise, and before one can say "Jack Robinson" a new lot of school-leavers are on the market. The result is that the constituency's unemployment percentages are back to where they were.

What are the causes of the present situation and what action can be taken by the Government to alleviate the present hardships, doubts and inconveniences? As I see it, the main problem in The Hartlepools is want of communications, quite apart from the present recession in the steel and shipbuilding industries. By road, we need easy access from the A.1. This, I know, has been approved in principle. I trust that my hon. Friend will do all he can to stress the importance of this to the Minister of Transport.

By air, the nearest airfield is seven miles from Newcastle. There is no doubt that something very much nearer is required. I realise that Middleton St. George has Royal Air Force priority. I was one of those concerned at a meeting about that not so very long ago, but I would say that a concerted effort is needed by the Board of Trade, the Ministry of Aviation and the Air Ministry to improve air travel conditions so that industry can be attracted to the area.

By sea, we have a fine harbour on which a great deal of money has been spent, and the coastal and foreign trade has slightly improved, in the last three years from 2,384,000-odd tons in 1959 to 2½ million tons in 1961; but it could be a good deal greater.

By rail, West Hartlepool is left on a limb for the greater part of the day, with very few direct trains from London. Surely this is a matter which merits investigation between the Board of Trade and Dr. Beeching? It may be a small matter in the large, overall question of communications, but it is nevertheless thoroughly inconvenient that those who have to go to the area have to change twice from Darlington, and that costs some hours.

What are other factors affecting unemployment in the constituency? The main factor for the industrial community is the remoteness of the area. There is a vast number of people who have only a vague idea where The Hartlepools are. I hate to say it, but it is perfectly true. It is high time the area was put on the map, and on this aspect of the matter, too, I would ask the Board of Trade to spur themselves to greater efforts. N.E.I.D.A. is doing its best, I know, but it has only just started. We have a trading estate where there is ample room for expansion, but little has materialised in recent months. N.E.I.D.A. is under way, but the time factor is urgent and we have yet to reach the peak of the school-leavers.

Turning to the steel and shipping industries, what hopes has the President of the Board of Trade, in conjunction with his Ministerial colleagues, of improvement? It is a tragic thought that a vast concern like the South Durham Iron and Steel works at Greatham, only just completed, and which reached the peak of £60 million, has already had to close down certain sections. Has the nadir in the steel industry been passed? What hope is there of an increase in employment in this industry? The shipping position on the ship-repairing side has shown some improvement, but orders are not all that far ahead. Here again, can the Admiralty help, even though orders may be very small in size? I know that we are to lose our reserve fleet by late June, but that was inevitable. The Admiralty kept it as long as possible there in view of the employment situation, and I am deeply grateful, but it could not do it forever.

What steps could be taken to increase employment? I suggest that approval should be given now to completing the Brenda Road in the Seaton Carew area. This road has been built in sections with a gap in the middle, which means virtually a bottleneck, and practically nothing has been done about it. The local authority wants power to go ahead with this middle section, but the Minister of Transport has deferred the money allocation. Men may soon be laid off by the council and my constituents will suffer. Surely an exception could be made in this case for an area of high unemployment. I ask my hon. Friend to consult and convince the Minister of Transport on this small domestic issue. Again, some of the education projects could similarly be advanced in a high unemployment situation.

We have an organisation in the Board of Trade called B.O.T.A.C. I suggest that its powers should be a little wider. It advises the Board of Trade on the making of grants and loans, but I feel that it is slightly cautious in its attitude towards security. If we want employment in the area, we should take a wider view.

Another point, and it is a good one, has been brought to my attention by the town clerk. He writes: … I think that the remedy which the government ought to apply in cases like that of the Hartlepools, is to build one or more factories in advance of known requirements …". This has been done in the past in Jarrow. Experience has shown that where a building exists and is immediately available, it is seldom that an occupier cannot be found. Indeed, most of the factories that now exist on the Hartlepools Estate were build in advance of known requirements, and some very excellent tenants were quickly obtained. The town clerk has further written to say that … although the unemployment figures reveal a bad situation, they by no means tell the whole of the story, as a considerable number of people, particularly those of the executive class, have recently had to leave the Hartlepools to seek employment elsewhere. Whilst this may be regarded in some quarters as a remedy to the problem, I would emphasise that any large scale migration, particularly of the higher income classes, has a damaging effect on the whole economy of the town, and reflects itself in declining values of property and diminishing retail trade. That is a very good point.

Finally, there is the trawling industry, which has virtually ceased to exist in The Hartlepools, due to high dues and the limited availability of crews. I ask my hon. Friend to consult fishing interests on measures to improve conditions, with the various Ministries concerned.

This is not just a Board of Trade matter. Many other Government Departments are concerned. The Local Employment Act, 1960, does not seem to have produced the results expected. Only one firm has really established itself in my area since that Act came into force. I ask the Government to investigate the entire problem of these pockets of high unemployment as a matter of urgency. Cannot Remploy, which is supported by the Ministry of Labour, be expanded? I appreciate that industry cannot be forced into the area, but I suggest that the persuasive powers of the Board of Trade might be a little stronger.

Will my hon. Friend take the initiative and consult the appropriate Departments and organisations concerned now on what can be done to help? There are further redundancies in engineering to come in the constituency. There are more school leavers to come, and time does not stand still. I ask the Government for action now and quickly.

11.25 p.m.

Mr. Norman Pentland (Chester-le-Street)

I intervene for a few moments in order to support the hon. and gallant Member for The Hartlepools (Commander Kerans) in the case which he has put forward so sincerely. I do so because I can understand his sincere concern about the unemployment position in that part of the country. It is reflected and has a sympathetic response in constituencies all over the North-East.

I am sure that the Parliamentary Secretary will not be surprised that I intervene in this debate, and I make no apologies for doing so even though the hour is late. I know that he is fully aware that year in and year out hon. Members on this side of the House have put down Questions to the President of the Board of Trade, the Minister of Labour and even the Prime Minister about the problems facing us in the North-East. Time and time again we have pressed the Government to face up to the urgent need for new industries to be steered to our part of the country, so far without any material success coming our way, no matter how much we agitate on this problem.

The hon. and gallant Gentleman was quite correct in what he said about the operation of the Local Employment Act, which has failed miserably, as we have said before, to overcome the problems of the North-East. When it was introduced, it was expected, the Government said, to deal not only with existing unemployment, but to anticipate future unemployment in the areas in which it was expected to operate. It has failed in both those objectives in the North-East, and the hon. and gallant Gentleman was quite justified in his criticisms of it.

Although The Hartlepools continues to head the unemployment league table in the North-East, with an unemployment rate of 6.4 per cent., many other areas in the North-East are rapidly catching up. For instance, places like Jarrow and South Shields and East Boldon have a rate of 5.5 per cent., Seaton Delaval, in Northumberland, has 5 per cent., Sunderland 4.8 per cent., Bishop Auckland, Spennymoor and Shildon 4.6 per cent., Houghton-le-Spring 4.3 per cent., and so on through the list of places with unemployment rates as high as three or four or five per cent.

In addition to the problem of adult unemployment in the area, we are now faced with serious unemployment among juveniles. Many of the youngsters who left school at Christmas have not yet been able to get a job of any kind, and they have now been joined by the Easter school leavers. In the Northern Region, 12,000 children left school at Easter this year, 4,000 more than at Easter last year. They are now on the labour market and looking for jobs. Everyone concerned with youth employment in the North-East is seriously concerned and apprehensive about what the future holds for these children. With the hon. and gallant Member, I ask what action the Government are to take to solve these problems of juvenile unemployment.

Again, as a result of economic policies which the Government have been implementing over the past twelve months, we find that unemployment is increasing in the steel industry, in shipbuilding, in ship-repairing, and in the metal manufacturing industries. This has to be considered in relation to the existing problem of the contraction that is taking place in the mining industry. In Durham alone we are apprehensive about what will happen to many thousands of miners who, if this contraction continues, as it probably will, will have to look for alternative employment in the next five or six years. We therefore ask the Government what preparations they are making in areas in Durham and Northumberland for the introduction of new industries to replace the coal industry and the coal mines as they are closed.

I have no time to develop my argument at length tonight. This will have to wait for a future occasion, but I warn the Parliamentary Secretary that all those hon. Members who represent constituencies in the North-East will continue to hammer away at the Government for as long as we can so that we will at least impress on them that some realistic plan must be brought forward to solve the problems that face our people in the North-East.

Commander Kerans

Would not the hon. Gentleman agree that the thing to do is to put the area on the map; to advertise it?

Mr. Pentland

indicated assent.

11.32 p.m.

The Parliamentary Secretary to the Board of Trade (Mr. Niall Macpherson)

I was hoping in the short time available to me to have an opportunity to put the area on the map.

My hon. and gallant Friend the Member for The Hartlepools (Commander Kerans) has handled the current problems of The Hartlepools with clarity and common sense, and he has been supported by the hon. Member for Chester-le-Street (Mr. Pentland), who has carried the argument a great deal wider than my hon. and gallant Friend did. I am sure that the hon. Gentleman will forgive me if I deal with the wider aspect in the context of The Hartlepools, as it is my hon. and gallant Friend's right to raise this on the Adjournment. I congratulate my hon. and gallant Friend on the attention that he pays to the wellbeing of his constituents, and on the vigour with which he pursues their interests.

I readily understand and sympathise with the anxiety with which my hon. and gallant Friend must regard the rise in unemployment over the last twelve months. The numbers of wholly unemployed have increased from 1,250 to about 2,100 over the past two years, that is, from 3.4 per cent. to 5.6 per cent, with a further 236 temporarily stopped. As my hon. and gallant Friend says, nearly four-fifths of the wholly unemployed are men.

I must say that a year ago, despite the Indifferent prospects for shipbuilding, I had begun to regard the unemployment problem in my hon. and gallant Friend's constituency as being within reach of solution, but unfortunately since then the recession in the steel industry has come upon us and has affected Tees-side more seriously than any other steel-producing area, except Scotland. Some closures of plant have taken place in the area, and further closures have been announced. Firms which had been expecting to take on additional labour have actually been discharging labour. At the same time it is fair to recognise that some of the plant that is now going out of use has already been replaced by more modern plant.

If I had any criticism to make of my hon. and gallant Friend's speech, it was perhaps that he tended to paint a rather too sombre picture of The Hartlepools, as remote, cut off, and in consequence neglected. In fact the steel industry is spending many millions of pounds a year in the Tees-side area—over £13 million last year, and much the same in the current year. It has spent no less than £144 million on development in Tees-side since the war. I would not call that evidence of neglect.

My hon. and gallant Friend asked whether the steel industry was likely to recover from now on. It is, perhaps, too soon to say that. Consumer stocks are lower than they have been for a long time and did, in fact, continue to fall in the first quarter of this year. But there must be a limit to that, of course. At the same time, there are a good many factors accounting for the weakness in the present demand, some of which may be somewhat intractable. There is the falling off in demand of the National Coal Board and of the British Transport Commission. There is the lack of buoyancy in shipbuilding and in heavy engineering and the lack of demand from overseas for heavy oil pipelines.

What is certain, I think, is that a general recovery in demand should soon be reflected in the steel industry. So far, however, the recovery in steel production on Tees-side has been only marginal and the utilisation of capacity is still only about three-fifths. That, I am afraid, largely accounts for the rise in unemployment in my hon. and gallant Friend's constituency. I agree with him that it is sad to see new works such as the South Durham Company's plants for steel plate production not fully occupied.

I recognise, of course, that The Hartlepools, in common with other parts of the country, feels that its communications could be improved and that higher priority should be given to it. In saying that, I am not in any way criticising what my right hon. Friend the Minister of Transport is doing but merely stating the fact that there is an awful lot to be done and that every locality thinks that its problems should be tackled first. However, I will very willingly pass on to my right hon. Friend what my hon. and gallant Friend has said about communications—road, rail and air.

My hon. and gallant Friend asked about port facilities. The docks, as he knows, are owned and operated by the British Transport Commission in The Hartlepools, and with coal exports dropping the port is more dependent on the imports of iron ore, and, of course, with the recent recession in the steel industry they have been affected. Up to that time they had been increasing rapidly. As a matter of fact, over the last two years there has been about a 5 per cent increase in the tonnage, that is to say, in the total shipments outwards and inwards, foreign and coastwise.

My hon. and gallant Friend drew attention to the improvement in ship-repairing and I was very glad to see that a prominent shipbuilding firm in his constituency had obtained two large orders for the conversion of tankers into dry-cargo vessels. On the other hand, of course, another firm has just had to declare 200 redundancies.

The Board of Trade has been doing its best to bring new industry to The Hartlepools and to the whole of the North-East. In the general context of the North-East, it is well to remember that there are 10,000 jobs in prospect. The hon. Member for Chester-le-Street said that all this effort had been to no purpose. He said that the Local Employment Act was intended to anticipate the difficulties. Then he quoted Seaton Delaval which has 5 per cent. unemployment. When we put it on the list we anticipated that, and it had much less unemployment than it has now. What the Local Employment Act cannot deal with is with fluctuating employment resulting from recession in a particular industry. It is supposed to be dealing with high and persistent unemployment.

Fourteen firms have been taken by the Regional Controller or his staff to see The Hartlepools in the past six months. I understand that three are thinking of bringing projects to the area. My hon. and gallant Friend will appreciate that I cannot give details, because these are confidential matters. Six applications for assistance under the Local Employment Act are under consideration by B.O.T.A.C. at present, and five firms have already received offers of assistance under the Act for projects estimated to provide about 400 jobs. Including those 400 jobs—as my hon. and gallant friend knows from a Reply given to him in the House three weeks ago—there are about 950 new industrial jobs in prospect over the next four years, 550 of them being for males.

The majority of these jobs result from expansions undertaken by firms already established in the area, but that does not matter at all; the point is to get jobs. That is what the Act is there to do, and assistance can be given to established firms for expansion just as well as it can be given to firms coming into the area. But there is at least one new entrant, which is likely to provide between 150 and 200 jobs.

My hon. and gallant Friend suggested that advance factories should be provided. This is something which every constituency with high unemployment thinks should be done for it. But I ask my hon. and gallant Friend to consider what would be the position if we were to provide advance factories in all the constituencies where there is a demand. Inevitably a great many of these factories would not be taken up, particularly in the present state of trade in this country. It is true that in the early days of the industrial trading estates a great many factories were provided in advance, but that was when there was a great shortage of buildings and a great deal of industry was turning over from wartime to peacetime production. There was a great demand for factory space.

The position is quite different now, and we must recognise it.

But we have provided a certain number of advance factories. We have had two lots of throe factories each, one in England one in Scotland and one in Wales. The hon. Member for Chester-le-Street knows the factory that is being completed in Jarrow but has not yet found a tenant—so it is not as easy as all that to find tenants for advance factories.

In conclusion, my right hon. Friend and I are well aware that the area badly needs more jobs, especially for men. Both of us have visited my hon. and gallant Friend's constituency, and I can truly say that we understand and sympathise with its problems, and that the Board of Trade's regional staff, in particular, are doing their very utmost to contribute towards their solution.

I join issue with the hon. Member for Chester-le-Street when he says that these efforts have been of no avail, and again I point to the number of jobs in prospect and the efforts now being made, and the likelihood that they, in turn, will result in further jobs in prospect. But against that the fact is that in the north-east, with the rundown in the coal mines, we are having to run very hard indeed in order even to keep in the same place.

But if we can diversify industry and bring more industry up there we shall be on much sounder ground for the future, and the object we hold before ourselves is the object of diversifying industry in the north-east, so that it will not be smitten from time to time with what is happening now in one industry.

Question put and agreed to.

Adjourned accordingly at a quarter to Twelve o'clock.