Employment

HC Deb 01 February 1971 vol 810 cc1237-42

22. Mr. John

asked the Secretary of State for Wales whether he will ask the Welsh Council to make a new study of current and future employment prospects in Wales.

Mr. Peter Thomas

The Welsh Council's terms of reference are wide enough to cover a study of this nature.

Mr. John

Does the Secretary of State agree that, although he thinks that our views on the matter are exaggerated, in a situation where 1,500 redundancies have been declared in the first three weeks of last month and in the third and fourth quarters of last year inquiries from new firms wishing to move to Wales dropped remarkably, there is urgent need for a new study of current and future job prospects as many people feel that the future is gloomy indeed in that direction?

Mr. Peter Thomas

Yes. I can certainly assure the hon. Gentleman that I am very concerned not only about the situation that has obtained in the last few months but about the situation that has obtained for several years in Wales.

Mr. Gower

Is it not strange that hon. Gentlemen opposite were appearing to be excessively optimistic about employment prospects a few months ago, whereas now that the Conservatives are in office they are excessively pessimistic? [HON. MEMBERS: "Hear, hear."] Is it not a fact that their pessimism can be most damaging?

Mr. Peter Thomas

I will only say that it is of particular concern to me that unemployment in Wales has been persistently high for over four years.

Mr. Kinnock

Is the right hon. and learned Gentleman aware that the hon. Member for Barry (Mr. Gower) could not have been more apt in his criticism of the Tory Government and that I could not have put it better? Will he commission an economic strategy survey for South-East Wales similar to the one published for North-West Wales today, particularly as the Government's present approach to and policies for regional economic problems have been singularly lacking in anything that could vaguely be described as a strategy?

Mr. Peter Thomas

I have told the House on other occassions at Question Time that the Government are at present considering very carefully the full regional employment policies for Wales and that an announcement will be made shortly.

Mr. Adley

Does my right hon. and learned Friend agree that the proposal that has been made for the location of a major airport in the South Wales and Severnside area could be a valuable item towards the long-term provision of employment in South Wales, especially as in the coming 10 to 15 years employment in the coal mines is likely to diminish rather than increase? Will he use his position in the Cabinet to give emphasis to this proposal in all its seriousness?

Mr. Peter Thomas

I am aware of my hon. Friend's interest in this matter and I assure him that consideration will be given to the point he raises.

25. Mr. George Thomas

asked the Secretary of State for Wales what recent discussions he has had with the Welsh Council concerning the increase in unemployment in Wales; and whether he will make a statement.

Mr. Peter Thomas

I attended a meeting of the Welsh Council on 12th October, 1970, and discussed with it a whole range of issues, including unemployment. Concern was expressed to me about the high rates of unemployment which have prevailed in Wales in recent years.

Mr. George Thomas

Is it not time that the Secretary of State pulled his socks up? Is he aware that since October the situation has deteriorated very badly in Wales? What arrangements has he made to meet the Welsh Council, which is deeply disturbed by the current increasing unemployment in the Principality?

Mr. Peter Thomas

I am constantly in touch with the Chairman of the Welsh Council. At its meeting on 25th January I do not think this matter was raised. I understand that a panel of the Welsh Council is about to make an investigation. As I have said, it is particularly of concern to me that unemployment in Wales has been persistently high for over four years. In January, last month, the unemployment percentage for Wales was 4.3 of the insured population. In January of last year the figure was 4.3, and in all of the last five years it has been approximately 4.3.

Mr. Kinnock

If the right hon. and learned Gentleman really has the good of Wales at heart, will he stop harking back over past years—[Interruption.]—and simply undertake the responsibility which his Leader has given him and get on with the job of job creation in Wales?

Mr. Peter Thomas

Hon. Gentlemen opposite do not like it when one hits back because they feel that it is solely their prerogative to be offensive and introduce party politics into Question Time and the Welsh Grand Committee. I pointed out that while the percentage of unemployment in Wales is deplorably high, there are, nevertheless, fewer people unemployed in Wales today than there were a year ago; and the percentage difference between England and Wales today compared with a year ago is slightly better.

Sir A. V. Harvey

Is it not a fact that unemployment in Wales and elsewhere is entirely due to the policies of the previous Administration? Hon. Gentlemen opposite who are in any doubt about that should ask why they went to the country last June and did not hang on for another six months.

Mr. Peter Thomas

There are many reasons why unemployment in Wales is high, but Question Time is not the time to go into the matter in detail.

Mr. Bob Brown

Might I, as an Englishman, make a fervent plea to the right hon. and learned Gentleman on behalf of the Welsh people? Since we in the northern region do not have a voice in the Cabinet, may I ask the right hon. and learned Gentleman to argue for a reversal of the present development area policies of the Government lest Wales suffers the fate of the North-East, where in my constituency unemployment has increased by 15.3 per cent. since last June?

Mr. Peter Thomas

Unemployment in the North-East is a problem, and has been for many years. I have no doubt that the change in development area policy will be of benefit not only to Wales but to the regions and that Wales together with the regions will benefit when the economy of the United Kingdom has improved.

31. Mr. Fred Evans

asked the Secretary of State for Wales what plans he has to deal with the hight rate of male unemployment in the Caerphilly constituency.

Mr. Peter Thomas

The Department of Trade and Industry will continue to do all it can to attract additional new industry to the area.

Mr. Evans

The people of this area are now becoming extremely tired of non-answers. Will the Secretary of State accept that his reply a few moments ago about stabilising unemployment at 4.3 per cent. ignored that that figure represents a major achievement over years during which there was a heavy programme of pit closures but at the same time enough jobs were brought in to stabilise the unemployment level in Wales, and, further, will he accept that male unemployment in this particular area is running at 9 per cent., which the people there regard as completely intolerable? If he himself cannot evolve policies, or persuade his right hon. Friends to evolve policies, to improve the situation, will he tender his resignation as a mark of his having failed the Welsh people?

Mr. Peter Thomas

The hon. Gentleman has written to me on this matter and I have given him details of the reasons why there have been redundancies in his constituency. He will know that the jobs in prospect for the Caerphilly, Cardiff, Bargoed and Merthyr group of employment exchanges, parts of which straddle his constituency, total 3,780, of which 2,400 are for men.

Mr. Callaghan

On the question of Government policy to deal with this problem, has not the Secretary of State overlooked that the purpose of changing the nature of the inducement was to reduce public expenditure and not to increase employment in Wales, and does he not realise that this is having a serious effect on the attraction of new industry? Is it not a fact that the change-over to tax allowances means that new firms which did not settle in Caerphilly, Cardiff and other places are prevented from so doing because of the loss of the investment grant? What does he propose to do to overcome that?

Mr. Peter Thomas

As the right hon. Gentleman knows, as a result of policies pursued by the previous Administration over many years there is a shortage of mobile industry in this country today. The change to tax allowances as opposed to grants affects certain industries which may have a liquidity problem which is general throughout the United Kingdom, again as a result of measures introduced by the previous Administration. I have no doubt that, ultimately, the change will greatly benefit Wales and will bring into Wales more viable and permanent industry.

33. Mr. Fred Evans

asked the Secretary of State for Wales if he will initiate an inquiry into the employment problems created in the Rhymney Valley by the redundancies at Hy-Mac engineering works at Pontlottyn, and the proposed total closure of Cardiff machine tools factory at Taffs Well.

Mr. Peter Thomas

No, Sir. But I can assure the hon. Member that the Department of Employment will make every effort to find suitable alternative employment for all those made redundant.

Mr. Evans

Is the Secretary of State prepared to state a time limit over which the loss of 1,000 male jobs added to an existing 9 per cent. male unemployment can be remedied, or shall we be told that there are 2,000 jobs in the pipeline over the next four years? Will the right hon. and learned Gentleman undertake to read the Manpower and Productivity Service Report of the D.E.P. of last June on the Cardiff Machine Tools Limited, which details some relevant factors regarding these closures? Further, does he realise, in the context of his reconstruction of Welsh local government finance, that by putting industrial mortgages into the locally determined allocation schemes he has struck out of the hands of local authorities one of the main tools with which they previously attracted industry into the valleys?

Mr. Peter Thomas

I have expressed to the hon. Gentleman my sympathy at the redundancies which have taken place in his constituency, and I have told him that my information as regards the Garth works was that the closure resulted from financial losses which the company had incurred over the past few years, due mainly to a low level of demand both at home and in the export market, coupled with increasing costs of production. He will remember that I told him also, as regards Hy-Mac, that they were the consequence of a process of rationalisation which had been necessitated by the depressed state of the construction industry in recent years. I hope that there will be an improvement in the future.