HC Deb 04 April 1967 vol 744 cc12-3
16. Mr. Palmer

asked the Minister of Power if he will make a statement on the cutting back of the investment programme of the electricity supply industry; and on what assumptions this reduction in forward investment is based.

Mr. Marsh

During the past three years electricity boards have amended their investment plans to align future capacity with re-appraisals of the expected future demand. These have led the Electricity Council to adopt the reduced load forecast for 1972–73 recently announced.

Mr. Palmer

Does not my right hon. Friend appreciate that by cutting back the electrical base of the economy in this way he is making precisely the same mistakes which all his Conservative predecessors made? May we have a new policy and new thinking in some of these matters in due course?

Mr. Marsh

It is possible to have a new policy, and this is exactly what we are engaged in at present. If increases in growth and domestic consumption and new factors like the rise of the gas industry impinge on these matters, clearly they must affect the forecasts.