HC Deb 29 April 1970 vol 800 cc1221-3
3. Mr. Kenneth Baker

asked the President of the Board of Trade whether a cost-effectiveness study was undertaken by his Department into the siting of the National Exhibition Centre at Birmingham.

51 and 52. Mr. Sheldon

asked the President of the Board of Trade (1) what examination he has made of the adequacy of the hotel accommodation for the National Exhibition Centre;

(2) what studies he initiated into the siting of the National Exhibition Centre in Birmingham.

The President of the Board of Trade (Mr. Roy Mason)

My Department made a thorough study over a prolonged period of all the factors concerned, including hotel accommodation, before I announced my decision to support the Birmingham proposals.

Mr. Baker

I specifically asked whether a cost-effectiveness study had been done. I believe that no such study has been done. If one had been done, would not the right hon. Gentleman agree that Birmingham would probably have been the last site chosen and that it would have been much better to have selected an area to which customers would go, such as the edge of West London?

Mr. Mason

I think the steps taken by the Birmingham local authority and the chamber of commerce will prove that my decision has been right. Many of those who opposed the proposal have now decided to take exhibition facilities there. There is a definite shift taking place in the opinion of many members of the exhibiting fraternity which favours Birmingham.

Mr. Sheldon

Does my right hon. Friend agree that the techniques of evaluation introduced by the present Government have led to a higher standard of quality of decision-making? Is it not a pity that those techniques were not used in such an important matter as this?

Mr. Mason

My hon. Friend will remember that at the outset, when we took the decision allowing Birmingham the opportunity to make a study itself to find how its industry would react to a Birmingham national exhibition centre, there was no other positive proposal before the Government; none was forthcoming from London, certainly not with financial backing.

Hon. Members

There is now.

Mr. Tom Boardman

Will the right hon. Gentleman reply to the question asked by my hon. Friend the Member for Acton (Mr. Kenneth Baker) and confirm that a cost-effectiveness study was not undertaken? If it was not undertaken, why not, in view of the time in which this could have been done and the amount of money and the consequences involved?

Mr. Mason

Because, first, I do not think that is necessary when no one is prepared financially to back a proposal anywhere else in the country. Second, the Birmingham proposal is backed by the experience of a remarkably good chamber of commerce which knows how to run exhibition centres. Third, industry is now prepared to go to what will be a major communications point in the heart of the country.

Mr. Julius Silverman

Is it possible to do a cost-effective calculation when there are so many imponderables about how many customers and so on would go to the centre? Within the limits, has the President of the Board of Trade made the best calculation possible, backed by the Birmingham City Council and Chamber of Commerce?

Mr. Mason

I am satisfied that I have. It would have been a hypothetical exercise to try to assess the views of those in the exhibiting fraternity, who hitherto have always wished to remain in the South.