HC Deb 19 February 1963 vol 672 cc212-4
4. Mr. Boyden

asked the President of the Board of Trade what approaches his Department has made to growth industries with a view to their expanding in the North-East, and with what results.

Mr. D. Price

The Board of Trade is continually in discussion with firms with growth prospects, representing a wide range of industry. Every effort is made to interest these firms in the opportunities existing in development districts, including the North-East, and in the facilities available under the Local Employment Act. Since 1st April, 1960, 165 firms from outside the region have visited the North-East to view sites or premises.

Mr. Boyden

Do the activities of the Board of Trade include encouraging existing firms to expand by providing them with loans and credits? A good many of the firms already on the site could be expanded if there were this sort of help.

Mr. Price

The Local Employment Act covers local expansion, and my right hon. Friend and our officers in the Board of Trade are constantly bringing this to the attention of firms in development districts.

Mr. P. Williams

Has my hon. Friend noted the very sensible recommendation made by my hon. Friend the Member for Sevenoaks (Mr. J. Rodgers) in a recent debate, that if the Government were to launch a space communications programme, the growth industry connected with it would be very suitable in the North-East?

Mr. Price

My hon. Friend ought to put a separate Question down about space communications. As he knows, a very large number of firms are involved, and one cannot talk in terms of a single industry benefiting from a space programme.

Mr. Jay

How does the Parliamentary Secretary explain that while the Government have been protesting about all the things they intend to do to increase employment they have reduced their Estimate for expenditure on the promotion of local employment from £40 million in the past year to £24 million in the forthcoming year?

Mr. Price

The right hon. Gentleman knows the answer to that as well as I do. In the past year there has not been the expansion of industry that there was in the previous year. [HON. MEMBERS: "Hear, hear."] There is no controversy about this across the Floor; it is just a fact relating to the working of the Local Employment Act. The financial help under the Act is given for industrial expansions. If industry has not been expanding at the same rate as in the previous year, one cannot spend as much.

Mr. Jay rose

—

Mr. Speaker

We must get on or we shall get into trouble.