Hovercraft (Hansard, 27 April 1970)

§ 20. Mr. Barnett
asked the Minister of Technology if he will make a statement on discussions he has had about the possible provision of public finance for the commercial development of a hovercraft.

§ The Joint Parliamentary Secretary to the Ministry of Technology (Mr. Neil Carmichael)
There is a continuous dialogue between the Department, N.R.D.C., and the hovercraft companies. N.R.D.C. normally takes a lead in commercial development and applies proper commercial criteria. The Department leads on technical and scientific matters. Present discussions are concentrated on the SRN4 and VT1.

§ Mr. Barnett
If, as seems likely, there will not be private capital available to take the risks needed in this area, is there any reason why the Government, if they are to put up all the money, should not go rather further and run the industry completely?

§ Mr. Carmichael
The recent studies carried out on the SRN4, gathering data dealing with the possibility of showing where improvements can be made, and maintenance costs lowered may give considerable encouragement to private capital, a great deal of which has been put into the development of the hovercraft.

§ Mr. Woodnutt
Will the hon. Gentleman correct the statement that has been made by his hon. Friend and say that the Government do not provide most of the money? Is it not right that the Government provide 50 per cent. of research and development which is matched by the manufacturers? Does he not think that he has to do more research and development to maintain our world lead?

§ Mr. Carmichael
The amount spent on research and development must be related to the benefits likely to be got from it. There has been a great deal done not only by the Department extramurally but intra-murally with the National Physical Laboratory on some of the fundamentals. A great deal of basic research has been done internally by the Department and extra-murally in conjunction with the industry.

§ Mr. David Price
Can the Minister tell the House how much work, in the view of the Department, has to be done on the SRN4 to bring it to a commercial success, and will he relate that to statements in the Press that the figure is between £5 million and £10 million—a figure which many of us find difficult to believe?

§ Mr. Carmichael
It is too early to put a figure on it. The question of commercial success appears, with the cross-channel services, to be just round the corner. It is a question of getting the maintenance costs a bit lower and the reliability, which has been improving consistently, a bit higher. The results of tests carried out on the SRN4 over the last few months are not yet fully available for evaluation.