HC Deb 07 April 1971 vol 815 cc436-7
25. Mr. William Hamilton

asked the Secretary of State for Scotland what steps he has taken to increase employment in the construction industry.

Mr. Gordon Campbell

I brought forward £1.75 million of essential public works into the past winter; I am urging local authorities which have a need for new housebuilding to submit proposals; and I am launching a campaign to stimulate house improvement. More generally, the Budget proposals introduced by my right hon. Friend the Chancellor of the Exchequer should help employment in the industry, as should also the lifting of restrictions on local authorities lending for mortgages.

Mr. Hamilton

How can the right hon. Gentleman be so damnably complacent about this matter? Does he not recognise that the latest figure of unemployment in the building industry is more than 26,000? Has he not seen the figures on the front pages of the Glasgow Herald today showing that the unemployed are not only unskilled but include large numbers of skilled people, from plumbers to building electricians and others? Is it not an absolute outrage that at a time when the housing problem is so urgent in Scotland this number of men, women and boys should be denied an opportunity to make a contribution to the solution of the problem?

Mr. Campbell

I am not in the least complacent. I deplore the situation which the hon. Gentleman has described, and I blame the last Government, which departed from office last June when they could have been in office up to this month. The halving of S.E.T. should now help the construction industry as much as any other measure which could be taken at present, and I am glad to be able to tell the hon. Gentleman that the road programme in Scotland should certainly expand during this financial year.

Dr. Dickson Mahon

Does not the Secretary of State realise that in the Glasgow area recruitment is already going on among the 8,000 people in the building industry who are unemployed and that they are being recruited to build houses in parts of England which are already comparatively well off for housing? Is not this a commentary on the disgraceful misuse of resources at one end of the country where the need is much less while there is a great need at the other end? Should not something be done quickly to expand the housebuilding programme in Scotland?

Mr. Campbell

If the hon. Gentleman will look at my original reply, he will see that that is what I said.

Mr. Hamilton

On a point of order, Mr. Speaker. In view of the grossly unsatisfactory nature of that reply, I beg to give notice that I shall seek to raise the matter on the Adjournment.