§ 7. Mr. Horamasked the Secretary of State for Trade and Industry if he is satisfied with the progress of the advance factory programme in the Northern Region.
§ Mr. ChatawayProgress has not been as fast as I would have liked. Mainly owing to shortages and delays in the construction industry, only one may now be completed within the current financial year, but I expect that all the rest will be finished by March 1975 as originally intended, save one where there is difficulty over land.
§ Mr. HoramIs the Minister aware that one of the chief causes of delay is the difficulty of acquiring land? Some factories have been held up for several years because local landowners will not sell to the appropriate body. Will the Minister look into this and undertake to discuss the matter with his colleagues in the Department of the Environment, with a view to revising their attitude to compulsory purchase in these cases?
§ Mr. ChatawayI shall certainly take that into account. It is true that in four cases there is some hold-up in the acquisition of land.