HC Deb 08 March 1971 vol 813 cc12-6
10. Mr. Robert Hughes

asked the Secretary of State for Trade and Industry if he will present a White Paper outlining the policies he intends to pursue in development areas and the total expenditure likely to be incurred in the next financial year.

Mr. John Davies

No, Sir. I would refer the hon. Member to the reply by my right hon. Friend the Secretary of State for the Environment to the hon. Member for Chesterfield (Mr. Varley) on 22nd February. Estimates of expenditure in 1971–72 on the regional assistance for which my Department is responsible will be presented to Parliament in due course.—[Vol. 812, c. 41–2.]

Mr. Hughes

Will the right hon. Gentleman not understand that such equivocal answers are causing grave lack of confidence in the development areas, that the lack of precise information is retarding development in areas like mine, Aberdeen, and that this must cease so that we know where we are going?

Mr. Davies

No, I cannot accept that. The information available to people in the country and in the House is considerable, extensive and precise.

Mr. Rost

In view of the redundancies announced a few minutes ago by Rolls-Royce amounting to more than 43,000, most of which will fall in Derbyshire, will my right hon. Friend now consider including the Derby area in a development area?

Mr. Davies

I have the position of Derby under consideration. As my hon. Friend will appreciate, the situation is not at all final and determined, but he may rest assured that Derby is a matter of concentrated attention by my colleagues and myself.

Mr. Dell

Will the Secretary of State confirm that, as has been said by the Minister of State at the Treasury, no estimate of financial expenditure in the development area in the new system can be made? Will he therefore repudiate the statement made by his hon. Friend the Under-Secretary of State in the Northern Region debate that the cash flow into that development area will be broadly the same as it would have been under the previous system?

Mr. Davies

No. I believe that my hon. Friend was quite right to say what he did. The fact is, as the right hon. Gentleman knows only too well, that it is virtually impossible to be absolute and precise on this matter because we are dealing with differential developments of industry. It is not possible to be exact. My hon. Friend knows that as well as the right hon. Gentleman. What my hon. Friend said was that the cash effect was in broad terms the same. That is correct.

21. Mr. David Reed

asked the Secretary of State for Trade and Industry when he expects to publish a White Paper setting out the Government's plans for regional development.

28. Mr. Urwin

asked the Secretary of State for Trade and Industry when he expects to complete his review of regional policy.

30. Mr. Varley

asked the Secretary of State for Trade and Industry if he plans to announce further changes in the status of development areas or intermediate areas similar to the upgrading of West Central Scotland in advance of the completion of his review of regional policy.

Mr. John Davies

The Government's decisions on the review of regional policy were announced by my right hon. Friend the Chancellor of the Exchequer on 18th February. As my right hon. Friend the Secretary of State for the Environment told the hon. Member for Chesterfield (Mr. Varley) on 22nd February, no further changes in regional industrial policy are planned at present.

Mr. Reed

Will the Secretary of State at least accept that there is some degree of apprehension in the development areas about possible effects of the Government's policy and that this is partly due to the way in which the policies have been announced in dribs and drabs, and then largely as a result of Opposition censure Motions? If the right hon. Gentleman has any faith in the Government's regional development policy, does he accept that a White Paper would clarify the situation and enable hon. Members to compare the Government's policies with those of the previous Government?

Mr. Davies

No; I do not think that the publication of a White Paper is needed. The matter is already abundantly clear. The amount of work that my Department is engaged in at the moment makes it very clear to me that there are no doubts about it in the development areas. [Interruption.] The hon. Gentleman has asked me to publish a White Paper to clarify the policy. I say that it does not need clarification. The hon. Gentleman says that there is some anxiety about present policies. I join him and the development areas in being concerned about what is undoubtedly a worrying situation in investment, but the hon. Gentleman would be wrong to imagine that this is entirely a question of differentials between individual areas. This is not the question. The underlying problem is one of the general economic situation, which is largely geared to an excessive degree of inflation.

Mr. Urwin

Does the right hon. Gentleman appreciate that the statement he has just made will have a shattering effect throughout the whole of the development areas? It it an absolute disgrace. Does the right hon. Gentleman recognise that the powerful stimulus and encouragement given to industrialists by the previous Government to relocate in development areas have now been almost entirely dissipated as a result of the right hon. Gentleman's laissez faire attitude and, latterly, the ridiculous and disgraceful policies he has introduced? As only one I.D.C. was granted in the Northern Region in January, following a serious decline in the previous two quarters, will he give an assurance that there will be matching of investment by the Government with that achieved by a Labour Government over the last four or five years?

Mr. Davies

The record of the past Government in terms of industrial development nation-wide was far from satisfactory. It is the present Government's firm and settled intention, first, to contain the menace of inflation and thereafter to encourage a degree of investment which will undoubtedly redound to our credit.

Mr. Varley

Is the Secretary of State aware that when he was appointed to his post he gave the impression to the House last November that he would have a coherent review of regional policy, instead of which we have had panic measures, complete muddle and complete sham? Does the right hon. Gentleman now realise that there is a complete lack of confidence in the weaker regions? Will he now reconsider this matter and do something about it?

Mr. Davies

The impression that is created on me is one of a determined effort by the other side of the House to create a sense of panic, not that a state of panic is widespread in the country. On the contrary, the country believes that we are moving into an area of more settled conditions.

Miss Quennell

Have the Government any intention of creating a development area in the South of England?

Mr. Davies

I repeat that we have no proposals at present for changes in the nature of the effects of the treatment given to development areas at the present time.

Mr. James Johnson

In view of the worsening conditions on North Humber- side, why does not the Secretary of State come there on his own two feet instead of talking in the Chamber; and then, having seen our local conditions, why does he not help us, which is what we badly need?

Mr. Davies

I look forward to being in the hon. Gentleman's area very shortly now and I hope to have the opportunity of using my own two feet for that purpose.

Mr. Urwin

On a point of order. In view of the wholly unsatisfactory nature of the Minister's reply, I beg to give notice that I will raise the matter on the Adjournment.