HC Deb 26 January 1976 vol 904 cc20-3
14. Mr. Ashley

asked the Secretary of State for Industry if he proposes to make any changes in his regional policies.

Mr. Gregor Mackenzie

No, Sir.

Mr. Ashley

Is my hon. Friend aware that if nothing is done to arrest the decline of the West Midlands it could in the end become a lame duck region, and that North Staffordshire could become a backward sub-region? Will he therefore consult the Secretary of State for Employment about the serious unemployment in the area and about ways of improving and assisting industry in the West Midlands and in North Staffordshire?

Mr. Mackenzie

I am very well aware of the unemployment problems in North Staffordshire and the need for diversification in that area. I suggest to my hon. Friend, however, that regional grants and so forth already cover some 43 per cent. of the working population of the country. Accordingly, therefore, one does not want to spread what there is too thinly. Nevertheless, I assure my hon. Friend that the effect of regional policy is constantly kept in mind.

Mrs. Kellett-Bowman

Will the Minister give at least some comfort to my constituency by making it into a full development area, bearing in mind that unemployment in my constituency is very nearly 10 per cent. and that the job ratio is well over 60 unemployed to every vacancy? The Minister has been saying for a long time that when the position got worse he would do something about it. What does "worse" mean? Is 10 per cent. not bad enough?

Mr. Mackenzie

The hon. Lady ought to appreciate what I said to my hon. Friend the Member for Stoke-on-Trent, South (Mr. Ashley). About 43 per cent. of the working population is already covered by assisted area status of one kind or another. If the help is to be spread out even more thinly, the question arises whether there is any value in anyone having assisted area status. What the hon. Lady said about unemployment is worth bearing in mind. It is one—but only one—of the factors taken into consideration in framing regional policies.

Mr. Crawford

Is the Minister aware that regional policies have been an almost total failure in Scotland? Will he not agree that, with unemployment in Scotland now over 7 per cent. and with the increasing centralisation in London of decision-making affecting Scottish industry, the only solution to the problem of the recovery of the Scottish economy is for the Scottish Assembly to be given total control over trade and industry and over the Scottish Development Agency?

Mr. Mackenzie

The hon. Gentleman should take some care to look at the unemployment figures for Scotland. We recognise that they are serious, but the gap has been diminishing over a long period of years. The gap in wage rates, too, has been diminishing over a long period of years. The Scottish Development Agency, as the hon. Gentleman knows, has now gone from the Department of Industry and has been taken over by the Secretary of State for Scotland. I have no doubt that the hon. Gentleman would wish to put questions of that sort to my right hon. Friend the Secretary of State for Scotland.

Mr. McNamara

Is my hon. Friend aware that many hon. Members representing English constituencies would like the sort of development assistance that is available to Wales and Scotland?

Will he agree that, with the present degree of unemployment and the way in which assistance is being given to particular firms, the whole nature of regional assistance and policies needs to be looked at seriously, as that assistance is not necessarily creating new jobs? Does he believe that blanket provision over a period of years will necessarily be of assistance to those areas with particularly deep-rooted unemployment problems?

Mr. Mackenzie

The whole point of having regional policies has been to assist countries like Scotland and Wales and areas such as the North-East of England. Although I cannot claim that this policy has been 100 per cent. successful by any manner of means, there has been a degree of success over a long period of years in balancing the disparities between the various regions. The problems we now face are mainly associated with the recession and they are quite different from the disparities brought in by regional policies.

Mr. Dykes

Will the Minister reduce the waffle and tell us why the Government are not applying for the total amount of EEC regional assistance to which they are entitled under the allocations?

Mr. Mackenzie

The amount of money that we receive from the Regional Development Fund, as I have often said in the House, has been a factor in decisions on regional matters and regional grants. As I said on the last occasion when we had Questions to the Secretary of State for Industry, we should not have been able to go ahead with such a good programme of advance factories had it not been for the Regional Development Fund.

Mr. Skinner

However much of a success or failure regional policies have been, they are not the answer to the major problem with which the country is currently faced—namely, mass unemployment from John o' Groat's to Land's End. Will my hon. Friend accept that what is really needed is a major attempt—during this week, no less—to change this situation? Will he persuade his right hon. Friend the Secretary of State to use his pressure within the Cabinet to force a change of policy in the Government's current activities? Will he also take into account the fact that if some Scottish nationalists are not concerned about what little they have got out of regional policies, my hon. Friend can transfer some of the benefits to Shirebrook?

Mr. Mackenzie

The point made by my hon. Friend is well taken. The whole purpose of regional policies, as I indicated earlier, is not primarily to deal with any unemployment situation at a given time. Regional policies are meant to break up the disparities between various regions.

Of course we are concerned about unemployment. That is why the Government have been taking measures to accelerate investment and so on. We have announced these measures in the past two or three weeks.