HC Deb 02 April 1968 vol 762 cc150-1
5. Mr. Wiley

asked the Chancellor of the Exchequer whether he will make a further statement on the creation of an Inland Revenue computer centre in the North-East.

The Financial Secretary to the Treasury (Mr. Harold Lever)

The matter is still under consideration.

Mr. Willey

Is my hon. Friend aware that we have been waiting a very long time for this decision? May we now assume that, when it is eventually made, it will be made in favour of the North-East?

Mr. Lever

My right hon. Friend must bear in mind that this is a complex operation. The centres in question cannot come into operation until the mid-'seventies, and he would be unwise to make any assumptions about the final decisions concerning the location of these centres.

Mr. Bob Brown

Is my hon. Friend aware that it would be outrageous, bearing in mind the present prospects of the North-East, if the first P.A.Y.E. centre was not centred on the North-East?

Mr. Lever

There are other areas of of the United Kingdom—[HON. MEMBERS: "Hear, hear."]—the representatives of which are as capable as my hon. Friend of expressing articulate outrage if they are not favoured heirs in this operation.