SOUTH-WEST SCOTLAND

HC Deb 04 November 1970 vol 805 cc1218-30

Motion, made, and Question proposed, That this House do now adjourn—[Mr. Fortescue.]

Mr. James Sillars (South Ayrshire) rose—

It being Ten o'clock, the Motion for the adjournment of the House lapsed, without Question put.

Motion made, and Question proposed, That this House do now adjourn—[Mr, Fortescue.]

Mr. Sillars

Perhaps on my first Adjournment debate I should start on a personal note. I am addressing the Minister at the Box who is my own Member of Parliament. He represents the constituency of Ayr and I live in that town. He and I have had debates with each other over many years. He has normally used a proxy in the Ayrshire Post, but I have been inclined to write my own letters. The last debate we had by proxy was on comprehensive education in the town of Ayr and, needless to say, I won on that occasion.

I am delighted that the hon. Member is to reply for the Government. Ayr and the surrounding district of Ayr do not exactly lie in the South-West economic planning area, but they are nevertheless recognised as part of the South-West of Scotland and, I think he would agree, a very important part of it. Although my main remarks will be in relation to the document "Strategy for the South-West of Scotland", I intend to refer to Ayr and certain services related thereto which are pertinent to the economic situation in the South-West.

The South-West of Scotland, as defined in Scottish Economic Planning Council terms, covers 3 per cent. of the Scottish population, which is a fairly small percentage. But we are all concerned with people. Irrespective of whether they happen to live in an area consisting of 3 per cent. or 30 per cent. of the population, people everywhere are entitled to a fair degree of consideration.

The South-West deserves our attention because it suffers from acute problems, not the least of which is that the vast bulk of the local authority representatives are Conservative councillors of the most reactionary kind.

There has been a general belief in Scotland that the region of the Highlands and Islands poses the most acute difficulties in the country. Indeed, the Highlands have a remarkable power to attract Scottish attention, I think for historical reasons. But the South-West of Scotland in some important respects represents a more acute problem than the Highlands and Islands. The nature of the area's economic ailments is brought out in a document published earlier this year by the Scottish Development Department entitled "Strategy for the South-West of Scotland". I illustrate the claim I am making to parity of concern with the Highlands by quoting the net migration figures given in this publication. Between 1951 and 1961, whereas the Highlands, with a population of about 120,000 more than the South-West, lost 16,300 net, equal to a 5.6 percent. drop in population, the South-West lost 10,400, equal to a 6.7 per cent. drop in population. Between 1961 and 1968 the Highlands lost 9,600 people, 3.4 per cent., and the South-West lost 7,700, which is 5 per cent.

Another illustration of similarity was given to me by an old friend who has worked in the South-West for most of his adult life and who is now an elderly man. He told me of a tale, and a true one, that the reason the Harland and Wolff shipyards are in Belfast is that the then Earl of Stair prohibited its location in Stranraer.

Mr. John Brewis (Galloway)

Rubbish!

Mr. Sillars

The hon. Gentleman says "rubbish", but my informant is a man with tremendous knowledge of the South-West who is not given to telling tales out of school. I do not expect the hon. Gentleman to say anything else than "rubbish" because he relies on the support of certain landowners in the South-West for his re-election time after time.

The baleful influence of the landowners in the South-West comes out clearly in the document "Strategy for the South-West of Scotland". It identified the basic weakness of the South-West's economic structure as its abnormal reliance on the primary industries of coal mining and agriculture, both of which have shed labour to an enormous extent over recent years and its inability to provide the necessary number of alternative jobs for men in the manufacturing industries.

The size of the problem can be seen from the information given on the first page of that document, which shows the need to create 250 new jobs in manufacturing per year as opposed to the present rate of only 100, and suggests that this should be done in the short period between 1970 and 1976. The document then goes on to warn that the 100 jobs a year have been hard won and that there should be some recognition of the urgency of the problem. I did not catch any urgency in the remarks the Minister made at the meeting he and I attended at Whit-horn during the Parliamentary Recess.

After analysing the problems, the authors of the strategy document made certain recommendations. The chief of them was that strenuous efforts should be made to increase the rate of job creation in terms of male jobs. They also pointed to the need to set about attracting new industry by establishing an organisation for regional planning and industrial protection, and also to give a high priority to industrial training, with a recommendation that local authorities should co-operate in promoting and developing industrial estates.

It is only fair that I include a few remarks about the principal burgh in my constituency located inside the South-West Planning Region, the town of Girvan, which comes out of this particular study with an enhanced reputation. The majority of the town council of Girvan do not share my political persuasion, but it is only fair to pay due regard to them for an excellent job well done. I would add a further commendation to the present provost of the town, who has made enormous efforts during his period of office, not only on behalf of Girvan but also the surrounding landward area of South Ayrshire.

I should like to refer to certain points in the document. I do not believe we are likely to get the necessary degree of co-operation from the local authorities in the South-West, with certain honourable exceptions. I do not think we are likely to see any strenuous efforts made by these authorities. To use the current political dirty word, we need Government intervention in the South-West to reverse the present decline that is so evident in that area of Scotland. Time is indeed short on that matter.

The document says that it cannot project beyond 1976 and that we must have this rate of 250 additional male manufacturing jobs per year in the period 1970 to 1976.

I hope the Minister will not advise me that the Wheatley recommendations will be in within the next year or two, that we shall then see a new form of regional local government in the area and that we can then look forward to economic expansion from that point, because the problem will not wait for legislation along those lines. In any event, the Wheatley reorganisation will not transform the political character of the South-West of Scotland, which, regrettably, is likely to remain Conservative-dominated for a number of years.

I believe that the Government must intervene. It is a sad thing to say that they must intervene above the heads of the local authorities but I do not think that those local authorities can complain, because the information produced by the Study Group in the South-West clearly illustrates that, by and large, the local authorities have been inadequate in relation to the needs of the area for economic and social development. I have very little hope and expectation of self-help being generated by the local representatives, and I believe it essential that the Government intervene.

The next point is industrial retraining, and this is of particular significance to me, representing South Ayrshire as I do. The Study Group forecast that the three pits in the village of Dailly in my constituency are likely to close some time in the 1970s. I have been to the pits and have talked to the managers and the men on the spot. I believe that, given the necessary support to the mining industry in the Coal Bill which we are anxiously awaiting, that forecast of probable pit closures would be unjustified. This matter is very important because the jobs of about 245 men are at stake, and, in an area as small as Girvan and the surrounding district, the loss of these jobs would be a catastrophe. It would most certainly be a catastrophe for Dailly.

I say to the Under-Secretary of State that, even if there is a grain of truth in this suggestion, if people are giving some consideration to the closure of the pits at Dailly, it is essential that the Government start planning now to provide retraining opportunities for these men and also to provide replacement jobs at fairly adequate incomes. I may add that the men do not get fairly adequate incomes now but one certainly does not look for replacement jobs with incomes anything less than they are earning at the moment.

Even at this limited extent of our knowledge of the question of industrial retraining—we are still groping forward to some extent and I am aware that technical problems are involved—it is surely not beyond the wit of the Government, given the existence of the intelligence information which is to hand, to forecast reasonably well the possible closure of a colliery and to bring in, before that happens, one-the-spot retraining for the men, perhaps on day-release or block-release, and at the same time vigorously to canvass around industrial areas in Britain where firms are looking to expand elsewhere, thereby bringing in replacement work. I am bound to make that point to the Minister, coming, as I do, from a constituency with that problem.

Finally, there is the need to draw attention to the rôle of transport infrastructure, which is recognised as of crucial importance to the promotion of economic wellbeing and development. I am sure the hon. Gentleman will forgive me if I concentrate on the north-west sector of the South-West, since it concerns my constituency. I see him looking up for inspiration and I will tell him that this involves the Girvan employment exchange area. It is necessary to improve the A77 from Girvan to Stranraer, but more especially from Girvan to Ayr. I see my right hon. Friend the Member for Kilmarnock (Mr. Ross) on the Opposition Front Bench, and it is only right that I should tell him that everybody in South Ayrshire recognises the massive road improvements made between Girvan and Ayr in the last five years.

However, we now look to the Under-Secretary of State, the hon. Member for Ayr (Mr. Younger), for even further improvements, particularly as I read in the Press the other day that the hon. Gentleman flew over the Firth of Clyde with a group of German industrialists. One cannot say whether or not the Press correctly reported the circumstances of the tour, but we are informed that his flight was designed to show them the magnificent deep water berth facilities at Hunterston, which is in the South-West of Scotland. One wonders whether this is an indication of a decision already made and soon to be announced about Hunterston, and the Under-Secretary is well aware of my views on that matter. I hope that it is a portent of good news to come in the very near future.

Air transport will be extremely important in inducing industrialists to come to the South-West, and I remind the hon. Gentleman of his gallant fight over the years for the retention of Prestwick Airport and for it to have a viable future. We in South Ayrshire are well aware of the importance of the public inquiry into the extension of the runway at Abbots- inch and the implications that that might have for Prestwick Airport, which I know is dear to the heart of the Under-Secretary.

Then there is the railway, which is extremely important. I recall that during the South Ayrshire by-election, after the Labour Government had restricted the grant aid to the Euston-Stranraer boat train for only six months until a further review took place, that action was denounced by the then Tory candidate as the action of a feckless Government. The Under-Secretary took part in that by-election campaign and I do not recall him ever contradicting his Tory colleague.

At a time when the present Government have under review the whole question of support for transport of the nature I am discussing, I take it that we can rely on the Under-Secretary to do his utmost to ensure the retention of the Euston-Stranraer boat train, a link which is regarded by everyone in the South-West as essential.

Another important rail passenger link which could have a definite effect on the South-West, and especially on Girvan, is the link between Ayr and Kilmarnock. It would, if reinstated, provide the South-West with a direct rail-passenger link right up to Kilmarnock, which my right hon. Friend who represents that constituency will agree is the booming and expanding industrial capital of the County of Ayrshire. New markets could be obtained there for the emergent industries of the north-west sector of the South-West planning region.

I know that this latter point is also dear to the heart of the Under-Secretary because he and I shared evidence at the time of the investigation into whether or not the Ayr-Kilmarnock line should close for passenger transport. I intend to send Mr. Robert Smillie, Secretary of the N.U.R. branch in part of my area and in the constituency of the Under-Secretary, a copy of the OFFICIAL REPORT of this debate, and I am sure that he will read it carefully to see whether the Under-Secretary answers or dodges the question.

I hope that the Minister can tell us how the Government intend to remedy the one defect of the strategy document for the South-West. I am referring to the self-confessed defect within the pages of the document namely, that it is not a plan. I suggest to the Minister that what the area needs above all is a plan and the swift execution of such a plan.

10.20 p.m.

Mr. John Brewis (Galloway)

I congratulate the hon. Member for South Ayrshire (Mr. Sillars) on his good fortune in being allotted this debate. I wish that the rules of the House allowed it to be for longer than half an hour so that both myself and my hon. Friend the Member for Dumfries (Mr. Monro) could make proper contributions to the debate.

In the few minutes available to me I should like to comment on the hon. Gentleman's speech. He was right to mention the Stranraer-Euston train. It was a written condition of the approval granted to the closure of the Dumfries line that this train should continue to be run. Can my hon. Friend give us an assurance that British Railways will not be allowed to escape from what is a firm commitment to people in South-West Scotland and also to those in Northern Ireland?

The plan for South-West Scotland is an excellent document, but paper plans are not enough. It is like a new car. It needs petrol and a driver. When the Wheatley Report on regional government is implemented there will be a regional development officer. Until then the Under-Secretary of State should encourage the local planning authorities to get together, to pool their resources and form a development association. Would a grant be available for that purpose?

Petrol for the new plan must come from the Department for Trade and Industry in the form of investment incentives and a greater interest in the area by my hon. Friend's Department. I welcome the return of investment incentives for those service industries unjustly excluded by the Labour Government.

I think that I speak for my colleagues in the South-West when I say that we are glad that the Under-Secretary of State made a special visit to the planning group meeting at Whithorn and how impressed we were by his obvious interest in the area.

10.22 p.m.

The Under-Secretary of State for Development, Scottish Office (Mr. George Younger)

I am grateful to the hon. Member for South Ayrshire (Mr. Sillars), my constituent, for raising this matter this evening, and I am grateful, too, to my other constituent, the right hon. Member for Kilmarnock (Mr. Ross), for being present. One of the greatest things about the secret ballot is that one can never absolutely convince oneself that one's constituents have voted for one. I thank the hon. Member for South Ayrshire for raising this subject. I cannot possibly answer all the points that he raised in the few minutes now left to me, but I undertake to write to him on all the matters with which I cannot deal in the time available this evening.

I am glad that the hon. Gentleman has raised the question of unemployment in South-West Scotland, because this is a serious problem, at least in particular parts of the South-West. The provisional rate in October for the South-West planning region was 5.4 per cent.—6.4 per cent. for males—but this is not a new problem. In the mid-'fifties unemployment was well below the Scottish average, but the region's basic industries of coal-mining and agriculture have given employment to fewer and fewer men. By 1967 the rate had risen to 5.9 per cent., compared with 3.4 per cent. in 1961, and there was a debate in the House in March, 1967, which was initiated by my hon. Friend the Member for Dumfries (Mr. Monro), whom I am glad to see in his place, when several hon. Members expressed concern about the same matter as the hon. Gentleman has raised.

Since then the rate has risen even further, and although in the last year there has been a certain amount of improvement it is still higher than the Scottish average. I do not seek to make any political point. I am simply saying that this is a long-standing problem and not susceptible of simple and quick solutions.

The picture is not, however, entirely a gloomy one and if, in the short time at my disposal, I can cite one instance of what can be done in an area like this with great problems, I must refer to the truly excellent and successful efforts in the Burgh of Sanquhar to put right its problems and to deal with one of the highest rates of unemployment in Scotland. I have in mind the establishment of the Century Aluminium plant at Sanquhar which is now prepared to increase its production and expand. It has been a tremendous encouragement to the area. The arrival of that plant and the success of it owes not a little to the unremitting efforts of my hon. Friend the Member for Dumfries over the years to produce it and to help it in every way.

Mr. William Ross (Kilmarnock)

Will the hon. Gentleman pay tribute to the fact that, when in government, we made this a special development area and that the incentives have worked dramatically quickly?

Mr. Younger

Yes. This is a prime example of local initiative which, combined with central government initiative, has helped to put something right in what was a general problem.

The hon. Gentleman mentioned that I visited the South-West in September and had discussions with local authorities and with the South-West Consultative Group. I am, therefore, fully aware of the economic problems there. Indeed, no one who has had a meeting with Stranraer Town Council can avoid being made aware of this, as my hon. Friend the Member for Galloway (Mr. Brewis) will know.

I discussed in particular the Report "A Strategy for South-West Scotland", and I have commended its study to the planning authorities involved. While the Government are not committed in detail to all the recommendations at present, I hope that the local authorities will agree that the general strategy proposed in the plan provides a suitable basis upon which their development plans might be updated after the usual consultations with the burghs and others concerned.

In particular, I would point out that the study shows that relatively few burghs in the area are actually ready as of now to offer a suitable site to an incoming industrialist. This must be rectified. I hope that all the authorities in the South-West will now, as a matter of urgency, review the provision made for industry in their development plans and, if it is insufficient, proceed to zone, acquire and, indeed, service sites on a suitable scale. There is no point in saying to the Department of Trade and Industry "Get us new industries" if there is not an industrial site readily available, adequately serviced and supported by houses readily on offer for those who may wish to work in the industries. This is really important, and it often takes far longer to zone and acquire a site than to build anything upon it.

But this is not just a matter for the individual authorities. The economic forces which shape the future of an area bear little relation to individual administrative boundaries. So it is essential for all the industries in the study area to come together to agree on a strategy which they can pursue in co-operation. I understand that the planning authorities already have an informal working arrangement to consult with one another on matters of common interest. I hope that they will make use of and strengthen this machinery now in the light of the published report.

I have also suggested to the authorities in the area that an industrial development agency might be set up. Mobile industry is in short supply and its attraction is a competitive business which has got to be tackled professionally. I am therefore glad to learn that the Consultative Group has endorsed this idea and has invited the planning authorities to send representatives to the next meeting of the group, and this is to take place on 11th November for the purpose of discussing this idea.

The group believe, and I believe too, that a regional agency would be more powerful, more professional and more effective than could the efforts of individual authorities working on their own. While, therefore, the South-West can certainly count on the continued support of the Government, I am sure that this House will agree that self-help is the best help and that Government efforts to attract industry to the area would be greatly reinforced if there were a strong promotional agency backed by the local authorities to sell the undoubted attractions of the South-West, which incidentally is one of the nicest areas of Scotland in which to live and work. If anyone doubts the value of self-help, let him look at the example of Sanquhar and at what has happened there.

I am glad that this debate has come at this particular time so that a twofold message can go from this House to the authorities in the South-West for them to consider before the meeting on 11th November—first, to the individual authorities, that they should make sure that they are absolutely ready to offer a choice of prepared industrial sites and of houses; and secondly, to all authorities that they should join their forces in planning and in industrial promotion, and the whole combined effort will be greater than the sum of the parts.

I am glad that the Consultative Group has convened the meeting on 11th November. I am grateful to its chairman, Mr. George Dunlop, for taking this initiative and suggesting this. I am grateful also to Provost Robertson of Dumfries who convened earlier meetings to explore the possibility of forming a development agency and who now, as vice-chairman of the group, is lending his full support to the current effort.

Mr. Ross rose—

The Question having been proposed at Ten o'clock and the debate having continued for half an hour, Mr. DEPUTY SPEAKER adjourned the House without Question put, pursuant to the Standing Order.

Adjourned at half-past Ten o'clock.