§ 49. Mr. Viggersasked the Chancellor of the Duchy of Lancaster what recent representations he has received urging increased assistance for small industries.
§ Mr. LeverI continue to receive representations from a wide variety of sources urging the Government to give more help to the small firm. My right hon. Friend's Budget contained a substantial package of measures aimed particularly at encouraging small businesses. But I am actively and continuously examining further possibilities of help, and not only in the field of taxation.
§ Mr. ViggersDoes the Chancellor of the Duchy of Lancaster recognise the very heavy management burden that has been placed upon all employers as a result of recent Government legislation? Will he accept that smaller businesses cannot delegate these responsibilities because they have no one to whom to delegate them? Will he look particularly at the Employment Protection Act 1975, which is now a disincentive to employment?
§ Mr. LeverI am aware that it has been the habit of all Governments to place an increasing administrative burden on the small business. I am aware that in the past this House has always legislated as if the firms which were to bear the burden were firms such as ICI, GEC, and so on, which can adequately departmentalise the administrative tasks imposed on them. I assure the hon. Gentleman that I shall not cease in my efforts to reduce the extent of these burdens.
As for the Employment Protection Act, my right hon. Friends and I will look at all possibilities of achieving the purposes of that measure with the minimum dislocation to and burden on the smaller firm.
§ Mr. Ioan EvansIn the work that my right hon. Friend is doing to encourage and expand small industries, will he have regard to the effect for a long period now of financial manipulators who have taken over small firms and stripped their assets, thereby putting people out of work? Will my right hon. Friend take that into account?
§ Mr. LeverI shall take all relevant matters into account. I am not quite clear—no doubt my hon. Friend will enlighten me—how small firms attract the attention of the asset stripper. However, in so far as they do, I should not like to see that activity encouraged.
§ Mr. BeithWill the right hon. Gentleman continue to recognise the importance of the Development Commission in assisting small industry, as was done in the Budget Statement? Has the right hon. Gentleman received any representations against this kind of assistance to small industry from the party which seems to be looking for a way of voting against the whole of the Budget later tonight?
§ Mr. LeverI welcome the focus that the hon. Gentleman has put on a very important agency for work in support of small firms in the rural areas. The Secretary of State for the Environment has increased the grant-in-aid to the Development Fund this year by 50 per cent., and I have never heard a single word of criticism so far of the work of the Council for Small Industries in Rural Areas. On the contrary, I have heard much praise of its flexibility, its inventiveness and its open-mindedness in providing capital to factories and advice to small firms in the rural areas.