§ 14. Dr. Stuttafordasked the Secretary of State for Employment how many people were employed in the boot and shoe industry in Norwich in 1960; and how many are currently employed in the same industry.
§ Mr. Dudley SmithThe estimated numbers of employees in employment in the footwear industry in the Norwich, Acle, Loddon and Wroxham Employment Exchange areas at June, 1960, and June, 1970, the latest date for which figures are available, were 9,100 and 5,800, respectively.
§ Dr. StuttafordWould my hon. Friend agree that these disturbing figures show a marked decrease? To safeguard the employment situation in the area, particularly in the footwear trade, will he make every possible representation to his right hon. Friends so that the industry may stand up as well as it can to the 1489 three hazards facing it—the problems occasioned by the introduction of V.A.T., by the importation of shoes from underdeveloped countries and by the present difficulties of origin marking?
§ Mr. SmithMy hon. Friend knows that these are not immediately matters for me, but I will undertake to draw the attention of my right hon. Friends to such matters. We are in touch particularly with the Department of Trade and Industry on the question of employment in the Norwich area. The reduction in employment in the footwear industry in Norwich has largely been achieved by normal wastage rather than by making workers redundant, I am glad to say.
§ Dr. MillerDoes not the hon. Gentleman realise that it is the policy of the Government which is booting people out of industry and that it is the policy of abolition of investment grants which is "shooing" other industries away from these areas which need and could have the industry?
§ Mr. SmithI do not accept that. If the hon. Gentleman talks to industrialists he will find that wage and cost inflation have accelerated the shake-out which has been going on and that we are still seeing the effects of the original vicious wage inflation that we had during the period of the last Administration.