Industrial Confidence

HC Deb 09 December 1974 vol 883 cc19-21

14. Mr. Adley

asked the Secretary of State for Industry what steps he intends to take to restore industrial confidence.

Mr. Gregor Mackenzie

My right hon. Friend the Chancellor of the Exchequer announced measures in his Budget State- ment which reflected his judgment of what is required now to restore to industry the confidence and financial resources needed to sustain output and investment on which full employment depends. For the future, the strategy outlined in the White Paper on the Regeneration of British industry should, by providing the means for full cooperation between the Government and all sections of industry, improve underlying industrial confidence.

Mr. Adley

Why has the Secretary of State ducked answering this Question, when he is the one most responsible for the decline in confidence in British industry? If the Government want a total Socialist State on the lines of Czechoslovakia, why do they not say so? If they do not want that, do they not realise that the behaviour of the Department of Industry is causing the disintegration of the economy? When will the Secretary of State stop behaving like a boy scout and playing games with the nation's future?

Mr. Mackenzie

We are not playing games with the nation's future. On the contrary we have given this matter a great deal of thought. We have presented it in two manifestos. It has been the subject of probably more discussion than any other aspect of the Government's policies. On the basis of that policy we were elected to govern the country, and we are perfectly entitled to bring forward policies of this nature and ask for support for them.

Mr. Stoddart

Is my hon. Friend aware that the announcement by the Secretary of State on Friday about intervention in the car industry has engendered a great deal of confidence in my constituency and many others? These are the sort of measures that we Labour Members expect of the Government, and which we shall encourage them to undertake and which will, we believe, restore confidence to industry.

Mr. Mackenzie

That is precisely why we have introduced the concept of the National Enterprise Board. As I look over British industry now and as it was in the last few years, I am even more certain that the board has a very important rôle to play in providing jobs.

Mr. Eldon Griffiths

Has the Minister seen the latest Financial Times survey of the investment plans of industry? Is he aware that it shows the lowest ever— that is to say, the worst ever—level since the survey was first instituted? Why is there this disastrous fall in investment? Is it not in response to penal taxation, runaway wages and threats of Government interference? Does it not amount to a vote of no confidence in the Government's management of the economy?

Mr. Mackenzie

I have seen the Financial Times survey but I cannot pretend to be quite as pessimistic about it as the hon. Member for Bury St. Edmunds (Mr. Griffiths) appears to be. Much of the reason for the collapse of investment over the last three years was the former Government's policy of making lame ducks stand on their own two feet.