HC Deb 17 October 1968 vol 770 c572
32. Mr. James Johnson

asked the Secretary of State for Economic Affairs when he now intends to publish the findings of the Hunt Committee.

The Secretary of State for Economic Affairs (Mr. Peter Shore)

I expect to receive the Hunt Committee's Report before the end of the year, and I shall arrange for it to be published as soon as possible thereafter.

Mr. Johnson

I thank my right hon. Friend for his visit to the Guildhall in Hull where the views of the Labour Council were forcibly conveyed to him. Will he not forget the urgency of finalising the findings of this Committee, because on Humberside we are in difficulty due to lack of forward planning and the competition of development areas in shipbuilding alone.

Mr. Shore

I am aware of my hon. Friend's concern and I have done all I could to spur on the completion of this report. However, as I think the House will understand, Sir Joseph Hunt and his colleagues are covering a very large question and inevitably, if they are not to make a superficial report, it is bound to take them some time.

Mr. Waddington

Is the right hon. Gentleman aware that as long ago as January at Burnley the Prime Minister said that he was prepared to act in advance of the Hunt Committee's report? Will the right hon. Gentleman explain why the Prime Minister has not so acted in view of the obviously deleterious effect which the Government's development area policies are having on the grey areas?

Mr. Shore

I remember very well that both the Prime Minister and I looked at the situation in the intermediate areas and at that time we said that action would not be ruled out if the situation in those areas deteriorated. But I am very glad to say that taking the intermediate areas as a whole the rather pessimistic forecasts then being made have not been realised.