BORDERS DEVELOPMENT (Hansard, 22 January 1969)

§ Mr. David Steel (Roxburgh, Selkirk and Peebles)
I beg to move, That leave be given to bring in a Bill to set up a Borders Development Board; to define its powers; to advance the economic development of the counties of Berwickshire, Roxburghshire, Selkirkshire and Peebles-shire; and for purposes connected therewith. This is not a new proposal. I first became interested in this possibility in 1964, when I wrote a pamphlet on the subject of the development of the Border Counties of Scotland. In 1966, I was fortunate enough to secure a place in the Ballot for Private Members' Bills and I inquired of the Government whether they would facilitate a Bill of this kind. At that time—

§ Mr. Speaker
Order. It is impossible to make a speech against a background of multifarious conversations.

§ Mr. Steel
At that time the Government indicated that they were not willing to facilitate the passage of such a Bill. To be fair to them, one reason was that we had not had time to assess the impact of the Highlands and Islands Development Act and the Board set up under that Act.
The proposal was supported in 1965 by a resolution of the Scottish Trades Union Congress, and it has also been consistently supported by the hon. Member for Berwick and East Lothian (Mr. Mackintosh). It may be asked why this subject has been raised again at this time. I cannot do better, in replying to that question, than to quote from an article in The Scotsman recently, by Mr. Chris Baur, that newspaper's industrial correspondent. Talking of the Government's economic planning in Scotland, he said: Alongside this intimate examination of selected areas the Government have constructed a proliferation of planning advisory groups, flowing upwards to the central body, the Scottish Economic Planning Council. These local groups have been designed to secure local participation in regional planning—short of evolving some new democratic mechanism which would embrace popular feeling. It is in the Boarders that this approach to planning growth points, and trying to involve the locals, has been tested first. It has not worked well. I submit that the reason it has not worked well is that there is no adequate 487 machinery to get development under way. The Minister of State for Scotland, whom I am glad to see here, suggested that the Government's development programme for the area would cost about £50 million between 1965 and 1980, but this revenue comes from a widely varied range of sources. It comes from the rates of a multiplicity of very small local authorities, from road grants of the Scottish Development Department and from grants from the Board of Trade, and the Machinery of the Scottish Special Housing Association. There is no one method by which this development is financed.
Another reason for the delay is the nature of the geography of the area. The main development proposal of the Government's plan was the "trigger" development of 1,000 houses at Tweed-bank. This is situated in Roxburghshire, but economically will benefit Galashiels, in Selkirkshire, and have only a marginal effect on the ratepayers in Roxburghshire who are, naturally, more interested in developing their own towns and have, therefore, shown less than total and urgent enthusiasm for the project.
I suggest that it is not good enough to wait until the Royal Commission on the Reform of Local Government has reported and until we have what I hope will be a new regional local authority covering the whole of the Borders. Some action must be taken now to overcome these difficulties.
I propose, in the Bill, to give the Borders Development Board much the same powers as are possessed by the Highland Development Board. Incidentally, it is worth observing that the rate of depopulation over the last 20 years in the Borders has been much higher than in the Highlands. The Board's powers, as in the case of the Highlands Development Board, would be to promote, assist and undertake measures to implement 488 proposals for economic development. There would be the same statutory requirements to consult local authorities and the existing Economic Consultative Group. There would be powers to acquire land and to set up industries.
In conclusion, I believe that there is now a need for some move on the Government's part to restore confidence in their own development programme in the area. The Tweedbank scheme is now two years late in its timetable and the closure of the railway line in the area has been a serious blow. The result is that there was in one church in my constituency last week a sermon by a minister named, appropriately, Maben, in which he quoted St. Paul (II Corinthians). He said: We are afflicted but not crushed; perplexed but not in despair; persecuted but not forsaken; struck down but not destroyed. I appeal to the Government to think again about their attitude to a Border Development Board. I believe that if they were willing to facilitate the passage of my Bill it would give the area a much-needed reassurance that the Government are determined to press ahead with plans for the economic development of the region.