HC Deb 22 July 1963 vol 681 cc1044-6
31. Mr. Shinwell

asked the Parliamentary Secretary for Science, as representing the Lord President of the Council, what new projects are proposed by the Government in the North-East for absorbing unemployed men and women in the next 12 months, and the following two years, respectively.

Mr. Denzil Freeth

A list of measures announced by the Government to increase employment in the North-East was circulated in the Official Report on 13th May. Since then my right hon. Friend the Minister of Transport has authorised additional road work costing £1.5 million in the area, the capital programme for Durham and Newcastle University colleges have been rephased to enable an additional £135,000 to be spent in 1963 and an offer has been made to Kings College, Newcastle, for the creation of a Department of Agricultural Marketing. I would remind the right hon. Gentleman of the £30 million which Her Majesty's Government are prepared to lend British shipowners for construction in this country, and of the announcement of the construction in the North-East, with Export Credits Guarantee Department support, of two more cargo vessels for Ghana, which was made on 12th June.

Mr. Shinwell

Do we understand that after all the investigations and activities and labour of the Lord President of the Council this is all that is being done in the North-East? Is the hon. Gentleman aware that the £30 million for the shipbuilding industry has not begun and may not start for a considerable time? Will he stop dodging about in generalisations and tell us what is being done and what is in prospect for the next three years?

Mr. Freeth

I would refer the right hon. Gentleman to Hansard of 13th May, and if he will add to it the projects which I have just described, he will see that this is a quite substantial programme which will provide jobs over the next few years.

Mr. Shinwell

Is the hon. Gentleman not aware that in spite of what has happened there are still 1,750 miners registered as unemployed and with no prospect of being absorbed into employment, and that there are a very large number of unemployed outside the mining industry and that there are prospects of further redundancies? Is this all that is being done by the Government? If so, why do not the Government come clean and say they are incapable of solving this problem?

Mr. Freeth

Because it would not be true. The measures which have been announced are, of course, in the main short-term measures. The Government will be making a further announcement when they have considered theReport which my noble Friend has made to his colleagues.

Mr. Popplewell

Is the hon. Gentleman aware that the so-called short-term measures are having no effect at all, and that we are still losing our industrial working population at the rate of some 12,000 a year from the North-East? When will the Government give us a tangible scheme to deal with the short-term position, and when are we going to get the report on the Lord President of the Council's visit to the North-East?

Mr. Freeth

Naturally the short-term projects, such as I have announced, are providing jobs for a large number of people. For the long-term prospects, dealing in particular with those in the mining and shipbuilding industries, the hon. Gentleman must await further Government announcements.

Sir K. Thompson

Can my hon. Friend say whether specific requests have been made by the right hon. Member for Easington (Mr. Shinwell) for help?

Mr. Shinwell

Dozens.

Mr. Freeth

I should have to look into that.

Mr. Popplewell

In view of the very unsatisfactory nature of the reply, I shall take the first opportunity of raising this on the Adjournment.