Smokeless Fuels (Hansard, 13 February 1964)

§ 7. Mr. Bence
asked the Minister of Power what steps he is now taking to increase the supply of smokeless fuels in the Glasgow area at prices within the reach of pensioners and people living on low incomes.

§ Mr. Peyton
I have nothing to add to the replies I gave to the hon. Member on 28th November and to the hon. Members for Glasgow, Craigton (Mr. Millan) and Bilston (Mr. R. Edwards) on 19th December and 6th February, respectively.

§ Mr. Bence
Those Answers were not very helpful. They got us no further. Elderly people, pensioners and those with low incomes who are living in smokeless zones in Glasgow are finding it very difficult to maintain adequate heating in winter owing to present prices. Will he help these people by bringing down the prices of fuels, or consulting his right hon. Friend?

§ Mr. Peyton
Prices are dominated by the cost of production and also by competition. As I told the hon. Member before, it is not our intention to take powers to control prices as we do not think that it will help.

§ Miss Harvie Anderson
But will my right hon. Friend look into the question of the quality of Rexco fuel, which has been put on the market in Scotland recently and which does not come up to the required standards of the housewife?

§ Mr. Peyton
That is not a question for my Department. Rexco is a proprietary fuel, manufactured by a private company. I have no doubt that what my hon. Friend has just said will be duly noted by the manufacturers.

§ Mr. T. Fraser
But is not the hon. Gentleman aware that the solid smokeless fuel which has been available hitherto in Glasgow and in the west of Scotland generally is the solid smokeless fuel provided by the Scottish Gas Board? It is one of the products of their coal-carbonising plant. Inasmuch as these plants are being replaced by plants which are fuelled by light oil distillates, is it not his responsibility, or that of his Ministry, to ensure that new solid smokeless fuel is available to people in that area?

§ Mr. Peyton
The hon. Member has just referred to the main factor that gave rise to the publication of the Government's White Paper on solid smokeless fuels. It would be wholly wrong for the Government or for my Department to seek to oblige the gas industry to produce a solid fuel when it is becoming increasingly uneconomic for it to do so.

§ 22. Mr. Lawson
asked the Minister of Power if he is aware that the Scottish Gas Board plans to replace coal carbonising plants in the west of Scotland by plants consuming light oil distillates; and what steps he is taking to ensure an adequate supply of solid smokeless fuel as the production of household coke diminishes.

§ Mr. Peyton
Yes, Sir. The hon. Member will find the Answers to the second part of his Question in the recent White Paper, Command 2231.

§ Mr. Lawson
Is the hon. Gentleman aware that there is no answer there which deals with this point; otherwise this Question would not have been put? Is he aware that many people who live compulsorily in these smokeless zones have fires burning this type of fuel and only this type of fuel, and is he telling us that it is nobody's responsibility when the supply of these fuels disappears and people are left to pay very high prices for a steadily contracting supply of, to them, an essential fuel and the only fuel that can be consumed in their 528 grates? Is he saying that there is no one with any responsibility at all in this matter?

§ Mr. Peyton
No, Sir. I am saying, and I dealt with this in Answer to an earlier question, that it would be wrong for the Government to seek to use their powers to stop the gas industry from developing those processes which seem most economic and profitable.

§ Mr. Lawson
I am asking whether there is anyone with any responsibility at all for the supply of essential fuels for people who are compulsorily put in the position which they are at present?

§ Mr. Peyton
I can only refer the hon. Gentleman to the White Paper that deals with the whole of this very complicated problem. There is a wide range of choice of various smokeless fuels, solid and non-solid.

§ Mr. T. Fraser
Is not the hon. Gentleman aware that he was wrong in telling my hon. Friend that the answer to the latter part of his question was contained in the White Paper? Is it not a fact that the White Paper poses the problem but declines to give any answer at all but leaves it to the consumers in those areas to choose, in the main, between the non-solid smokeless fuels—oil, gas and electricity—in place of the solid smokeless fuel for which they have purchased rather expensive appliances? Have not the Government some responsibility in this matter?

§ Mr. Peyton
I do not think that I can usefully add to the Answer that I have already given.