HC Deb 08 February 1967 vol 740 cc1648-9
49. Dr. Dunwoody

asked the President of the Board of Trade if he will take steps to encourage further the development of industry in those development areas with persistently high rates of unemployment.

Mr. Darling

Yes, Sir. We have begun a Press advertising campaign this week to bring to the notice of industrialists the opportunities for expansion in the development areas.

Dr. Dunwoody

I welcome my right hon. Friend's reply but does not he agree that the response to Government incentives in some of the most difficult development areas has been disappointing and that persistently high unemployment ought to be a very strong argument for creating a greater degree of incentives in these areas?

Mr. Darling

I think that the present incentives, which are clearly set out in the advertisements to which I referred, will have the response that my hon. Friend and all of us in the House would wish.

Mr. Corfield

Will the right hon. Gentleman try to persuade the Chancellor of the Exchequer that the efforts being made by the Board of Trade are being largely nullified in this area in particular by the ludicrous nonsense of the Selective Employment Tax?

Mr. Darling

That is another question.