Advance Factories, Scotland (Hansard, 2 July 1963)

§ 37. Mr. Lawson
asked the President of the Board of Trade how many advance factories are currently being built in Scotland; and what they represent in square footage and in the number of jobs likely to be provided in the event of occupation.

§ Mr. Erroll
Seventeen advance factories are being provided in Scotland under the present programme. Seven of these are already under construction, and the construction of four others will begin shortly. These eleven factories will have an area of about 394,000 sq. ft. and should provide about 1,600 jobs. Six smaller factories representing 60,000 sq. ft. and about 250 jobs are in earlier stages of preparation.

§ Mr. Lawson
In view of the heavy losses just mentioned by my hon. Friend the Member for Edinburgh, East (Mr. Willis) due to redundancies, does not the Minister think that this small figure is a drop in the bucket compared with the vast needs of Scotland? Will he not see that something much more than this is done so that we can begin to feel that we are overcoming our difficulties?

§ Mr. Erroll
Advance factories are only part of the methods which are used, because new factories may be built for ownership or for rental and there may be extensions to existing firms already sited in Scotland. The important thing about the advance factory programme is that we should not build too much in advance of likely tenants, because a derelict unoccupied advance factory is no advertisement to come to a locality. Our building programme is, I think, just about correctly phased for the objective which we have in mind.

§ Mr. Lawson
Is the President of the Board of Trade aware that even last year, about which he is boasting, taking all industrial building together we did not have a building programme which was comparable to the size of our population? Will not he ensure that something much better than this is done?

§ Mr. Erroll
I should like the hon. Member to realise that I am not boasting about last year, this year or any year. I am simply mentioning what has been done and what is being done. The important thing about advance factories is to build more or less in accordance with the likelihood of obtaining tenants so they are occupied by the time they are built. I should have thought that this was a sensible policy to pursue.