§ 16. Mr. Skeetasked the Secretary of State for Trade and Industry what was the number of cars produced by United Kingdom manufacturers in 1971 as against 1970; and whether he will make a statement.
§ Mr. RidleyThe number was 1,742,000 compared with 1,641,000 in 1970, an increase of 6 per cent. Prospects for a further marked growth in production this year are good and the opportunity exists to approach an output of 2 million cars. Car production figures are published monthly and are available in the Library.
§ Mr. SkeetI am grateful for those most encouraging figures. Will my hon. 1063 Friend indicate the likely effect of an increase in steel prices on sales in the coming year, and the numbers of cars lost in the past year through strikes?
§ Mr. RidleyIt would be impossible to make those estimates. But strikes have already brought the 1972 figure below what it might have been. If the industry is to continue in prosperity, there must be an improvement in industrial relations.
§ Mr. CarterDoes the Minister agree that what the car industry and its workers most want is not the bandying about by politicians and Ministers of record numbers of cars produced but the long-term stability of the industry?
§ Mr. RidleyThe stability of the industry will be achieved by those who work in it.
§ Mr. TinnIs the Minister aware that the proposed steel price increases will make a difference of a very few pounds per car in car prices, and that it would be entirely wrong for the future development of the steel industry, a basic industry, to be in any way jeopardised by a reluctance to increase prices on this occasion as was displayed on a previous occasion?
§ Mr. RidleyThe Government have asked the nationalised industries to conform to the C.B.I. initiative, which has had an effect upon steel prices, but I must ask the hon. Gentleman to argue out with his hon. Friend the Member for Birmingham, Northfield (Mr. Carter) what they jointly think about those two alternatives.