HC Deb 20 February 1969 vol 778 cc749-50
12. Mr. Wall

asked the Secretary of State for Economic Affairs if he will make a statement on the Humberside Feasibility Report.

Mr. Shore

No, Sir, not before the report has been published.

Mr. Wall

Does the right hon. Gentleman appreciate that the planning development of Humberside has been held up for four years by a series of commissions and inquiries? Now that he has the report for publication he says that he will consult local authorities and test public opinion. What local authorities, and how can he test public opinion if the public do not know what is in the report?

Mr. Shore

It is a matter of waiting until the report is published. I must resist the suggestion that work and planning in the Humberside area has been affected or delayed by waiting for the report. The report will deal with a pattern of growth from 1981 onwards.

Mr. George Jeger

Does my right hon. Friend appreciate that we have been waiting for this report on Humberside for a long, long time and that there is positive stagnation in industry on Humberside with the perpetual threat of decline in future? The report is urgently awaited by local authorities, industrialists and the workers who are threatened with the loss of their jobs.

Mr. Shore

I understand my hon. Friend's interest and concern that the report should be published as soon as possible. It will be published within three or four months of the time when it was received in December.