Iron and Steel Board (Headquarters)

HC Deb 09 May 1967 vol 746 cc1255-6

10. Sir Harmar Nicholls

asked the Minister of Power, if, on vesting day, he will issue a direction to the Iron and Steel Board to obtain particulars of less expensive sites and premises for their headquarters before signing a lease for the expensive multi-storey offices in St. Giles' Circus.

31. Mr. Gresham Cooke

asked the Minister of Power whether on vesting day he will direct the National Steel Corporation to reconsider their decision to set up headquarters in London and instead to establish it in Sheffield, the geographical centre of the steel industry, so as to fall into line with government policy for the decentralisation of offices.

Mr. Marsh

No, Sir. As I said on 4th April in reply to my hon. Friend the Member for Monmouth (Mr. Anderson), the Government have accepted a recommendation by the Organising Committee that the head office of the National Steel Corporation should be in London. The choice of office premises in London is a matter for the Corporation, which moved yesterday to No. 22, Kingsway, W.C.2.—[Vol. 744, col. 1.]

Sir Harmar Nicholls

But is the right hon. Gentleman aware that in line with Government policy the Location of Offices Bureau has persuaded many private firms to take their head offices out of central London to save money? Why should this organisation, which is spending public money, be absolved from that sort of recommendation, particularly when the saving can be as much as £400,000 a year, as I pointed out in a letter?

Mr. Marsh

The Corporation is acting in accordance with Government policy by ensuring that the number of people who will be employed in London will be cut by about half as a result of public ownership compared with private enterprise.

Mr. Cooke

At a time when the Government are telling the Patent Office and the Mint to get out of London, is it not ridiculous to allow the National Steel Corporation to set up a huge office with 800 employees a hundred miles from the nearest steel works? Should it not be right in the geographical centre of the steel industry?

Mr. Marsh

The hon. Gentleman's indignation is rather surprising. The Steel Corporation is proposing to reduce the number of people employed in London by private steel companies from something like 1,700 to something like 700. I cannot understand why he has kept his criticism for the numbers employed by the publicly-owned industry.