§ 22. Mr. R. W. Elliottasked the President of the Board of Trade what procedures are followed by his Department in determining the location in which advance factories are to be built; and whether the regional economic planning councils concerned are consulted.
§ Mrs. Gwyneth DunwoodyThe location of advance factories in individual areas is determined by a number of considerations which include the present and expected employment position, the existence of other factory space, the availability of suitable land for further building, and the possibility of attracting occupiers when the factories are 1813 completed. Consultations take place with other Government Departments which, like the Board of Trade, are also members of the appropriate economic planning board. Economic planning councils are concerned with the broad strategy of employment in their areas and not with the siting of individual factories.
§ Mr. ElliottI am very grateful to the hon. Lady for the criteria she has given. Is she aware that there is considerable concern that there is insufficient research on the siting of advance factories according to need, and it is not time, so long after 1964, that economic planning councils were suggesting themselves as something more than "propaganda fronts"?
§ Mrs. DunwoodyI do not accept the hon. Gentleman's last remarks. Very careful account is taken of the situation in an area before we place an advance factory there, because we are anxious to get a tenant and to get a growth point working.
§ Mr. CorfieldWill the hon. Lady consider consulting her right hon. Friend with a view to altering the arrangements so that private developers would also be able to build advance factories if so minded? At present they cannot do so because it is not possible to build them privately without an I.D.C. before one starts.
§ Mrs. DunwoodyOne accepts that the same rules do not apply to private developers. In some development areas private developers are going ahead with industrial estates quite successfully.