Industrial Strategy

HC Deb 13 December 1976 vol 922 cc960-2

20. Mr. Michael Marshall

asked the Secretary of State for Industry what progress has been made towards the implementation of the Government's industrial strategy announced on 5th November 1975.

Mr. Varley

A progress report on the action taken in the light of the first reports by sector working parties was placed in the Library of the House on 3rd November. The second round, in which sector working parties will continue their work in developing medium-term strategies, is now under way. A further report will be made to the National Economic Development Council in February.

Mr. Marshall

Does not the right hon. Gentleman agree that one of the greatest single handicaps in carrying through the strategy so boldly announced in November last year is the kind of loss of morale and difficulties in the nationalised industries that comes from constant day-to-day intervention in management decisions, as spelt out in the NEDO Report on which the right hon. Gentleman refused to comment earlier today? Will he now tell us precisely what he will do about that?

Mr. Varley

There is a later Question about the NEDO Report, but I think that I can tell the hon. Member that the report went back to 1945. For half of the period since then the Conservative Party had some control over the nationalised industries, and, of course, the level of interference during that period was considerable. As someone who worked in the steel industry or had some association with it, the hon. Gentleman will know of the great anxiety that existed in the period 1970–72 about the joint steering group, which was described at the time by one of my hon. Friends as a constitutional monstrosity. I want to see the nationalised industries, where practicable, profitable and successful, with the minimum of intervention.

Mr. Rooker

Will my right hon. Friend take more action to get shop stewards and those on the shop floor involved in the Government's industrial strategy, so that we do not face a situation similar to that which we face over planning agreements? That problem is epitomised in a letter that I have just received from the Prime Minister, in which he berates the lack of knowledge of and enthusiasm for planning agreements as one of the reasons why we have not been successful. Will my right hon. Friend do more in that direction?

Mr. Varley

I think that we shall have to do more in this direction. My hon. Friend is right. If we are to make a success of industrial policy, workers at the level of the plant and the firm must be involved in planning decisions, and broadly there must be a movement towards what some of us on this side describe as industrial democracy.

Mr. Nelson

Will the right hon. Gentleman recognise that, as long as the return on capital employed in industry is at an average of less than 2 per cent. and as long as the cost of funds borrowed by industry remains at 17 or 18 per cent., so long will the Government's industrial strategy remain stillborn? Will he impress on the Chancellor, before the latter makes any announcement in the House, the importance not so much of vast and long-range Government intervention as of wide-ranging personal incentives to encourage the regeneration of British industry?

Mr. Varley

I think that a whole range of things are covered if we are to have an effective industrial strategy. A good start has been made. Both the TUC and the CBI are committed to the industrial strategy, working through NEDC. As for interest rates, the trend should be downwards. We must get the thing moving in that direction. Certainly we must get inflation down and the support of those who can bring that about. In the industrial strategy, the performance of British industry and the improvement of its international competitiveness represent the only way forward for this country.