HC Deb 23 April 1970 vol 800 cc614-5
18. Mr. Marten

asked the Secretary of State for Employment and Productivity what is the total of unemployed in north Oxfordshire.

The Minister of State, Department of Employment and Productivity (Mr. Edmund Dell)

At 13th April, 1970, the provisional number of persons registered as unemployed in the area covered by the Banbury Employment Exchange was 529.

Mr. Marten

While realising that that was just about the national average, may I ask whether the right hon. Gentleman is aware that under the Conservatives it was 0.9 per cent. and not about 2.7 per cent., which it is now? What are the Government going to do about it?

Mr. Dell

The hon. Gentleman knows that redundancies in British Leyland last November and the rundown in the British Railways marshalling yard have affected the figures. However, the interesting fact in Banbury is the high number of unfilled vacancies notified to the Department, which is more than double what it was in April, 1963. This illustrates the difficulty of linking up unemployment with unfilled vacancies, which is a problem we are studying. As for what the Government are doing about the situation, the hon. Members knows that in respect of I.D.C.s, after development areas and intermediate areas, priority is given to overspill towns such as Banbury.