HC Deb 02 July 1963 vol 680 cc171-3
4. Mr. Ellis Smith

asked the President of the Board of Trade what action he will take following the Seventh Report from the Estimates Committee which deals with the administration of the Local Employment Act, 1960; and if he will make a statement.

The President of the Board of Trade (Mr. F. J. Erroll)

The Board of Trade is considering the Seventh Report of the Estimates Committee on the Administration of the Local Employment Act, 1960, and will be sending its observations on the Conclusion and Recommendations to the Committee as soon as possible. I cannot anticipate those observations.

12. Mr. Grey

asked the President of the Board of Trade what other measures he will recommend in view of the report of the Estimates Committee that inducements to industry to move into development districts have not been as effective as was intended when the Local Employment Act, 1960, was passed.

Mr. Erroll

The Question bears on part of the conclusion of the Seventh Report of the Estimates Committee. The Board of Trade will send its observations on the Conclusion and Recommendations to the Committee as soon as possible, and I cannot anticipate these observations.

Mr. Grey

Is the right hon. Gentleman not aware that the working of the Local Employment Act has completely misfired? Does he not think that other help is needed in the North-East so that we might be able to run down the unemployment figures there now?

Mr. Erroll

As I have said on previous occasions at the Dispatch Box, I think that the Local Employment Act has done a wonderful job. Again, I do not want to anticipate the findings of the Committee.

Dr. Bray

Has the right hon. Gentleman considered the view reported to be held by the F.B.I. that the machinery of the Local Employment Act is inadequate?

Mr. Erroll

I have studied the Report with the greatest interest, and I am having informal discussions with the Federation to make plain matters which, perhaps, were not clear to the Federation at the time when it made its report.

Mr. R. W. Elliott

Will my right hop. Friend not agree that many people in the north of England will not at all agree that the Local Employment Act has misfired? Will he continue to place emphasis on inducement and to oppose direction, which the party opposite would instigate?

Mr. Erroll

I am grateful to my hon. Friend for that expression of view. The essential thing is a combination of inducements and of negative control. The negative control is most important. I exercise that control most diligently, but I am enormously helped in exercising it by the new scale of inducements which have been introduced by my right hon. Friend and myself.

13. Mr. Grey

asked the President of the Board of Trade if, in view of the Estimates Committee's criticisms of the frequent changes made in the list of development districts, he will take steps to see that the whole of the industrial North-East is scheduled as a development district.

Mr. Erroll

No, Sir. All parts of the industrial North-East where high and persistent unemployment exists or is threatened are already included in the list of development districts.

Mr. Grey

Is the right hon. Gentleman aware of the uncertainty that there is in the North-East, and is he fully aware that this uncertainty could be dispelled if he would only treat the whole of the North-East as one development district? If the right hon. Gentleman did that it would certainly give strength to the elbow of the North-East Development Council which is trying to do a most difficult job in difficult circumstances.

Mr. Erroll

I have some sympathy with what the hon. Member has said, but I do not think that we would dispel uncertainty in areas of high unemployment if we added to the list districts of relatively low unemployment which might therefore attract new industry to them instead of to those areas where unemployment is highest.

Dame Irene Ward

May I thank my right hon. Friend for what he did recently in adding to the areas which are now scheduled on the North-East Coast? Since these include the big shipbuilding areas of Tyneside and we have been discussing inducements, will my right hon. Friend remember that we should like to see an inducement provided for the placing of the new Cunarder contract on the Tyne?

Mr. Erroll

I am grateful to my hon. Friend for her remarks. I will certainly pass on the point about the new Cunarder to my right hon. Friend the Minister of Transport.