§ 8. Mr. Goodladasked the Secretary of State for Employment what is the latest unemployment rate in the North-West of England.
§ The Under-Secretary of State for Employment (Mr. John Golding)At 9th February the unemployment rate in the North-West Region was 7.5 per cent.
§ Mr. GoodladDoes the Minister agree that the trend in the North-West is exceptionally worrying? Is he aware of the small share of European Investment Bank loans which has been received in the North-West and the very low level of European Regional Development Fund aid for unemployed persons received by the North-West as compared with other areas? Will he make representations to ensure that this is rectified in the future?
§ Mr. GoldingOf course the situation is very worrying, but what is important is the amount of money put into the region, and not its sources, and £400 million has been put into the North-West region as financial assistance in the five years up to March 1977. As the House well knows, we made it clear to Brussels that the North-West has been heavily dependent upon the temporary employment subsidy.
§ Mr. LoydenDoes my hon. Friend agree that the efforts being made by his Department to reduce unemployment in the North-West are being undermined by decisions, as in Merseyside, that will lose 3,000 jobs at a stroke? Does he not agree that it is time that he discussed with his right hon. Friends in the Cabinet the contradictions that exist between these two forms of action?
§ Mr. GoldingMy right hon. Friend discusses these problems constantly with my right hon. Friend the Secretary of State for Industry. The Government must leave it to British Leyland to take commercial decisions on its own account.
§ Mr. SilvesterHas the Minister seen the article in The Guardian of today, which suggests that, like the job creation scheme, the youth opportunities scheme in Merseyside may be being handicapped by the weight of the requirements from bureaucracy and the additional staff being employed? Will he look into that area and see that this programme is not being handicapped?
§ Mr. GoldingI have not read The Guardian today. I have been at the Birmingham partnership meeting, and travelling back. I have not had time to read it.
§ Mr. RoseIs my hon. Friend aware that for structural and geographical reasons, the North-West, comparatively, has deteriorated more rapidly than any other 222 region? Will he, therefore, channel a greater concentration and share of Government resources and, indeed, of Common Market grants, and Government contracts and other aid into these older urban areas, upon which the wealth of this nation was originally founded?
§ Mr. GoldingWe do not want to talk about a league table for comparing regions. What is important is that we give as much assistance to each region as possible to deal with the problems of unemployment and industrial decline.
§ Later—
§ Mr. LoydenOn a point of order, Mr. Speaker. In a reply given to me by my hon. Friend the Under-Secretary of State for Employment, he said that the decision in relation to the 3,000 jobs to which I had referred was a matter for Leyland. However, I understand from a conversation with my right hon. Friend the Secretary of State for Industry that there are at the moment proposals being put forward by Leyland as part of a corporate plan which ultimately will go before the National Enterprise Board and eventually, I suppose, will be considered by some Cabinet committee. Therefore, it is misleading for the Under-Secretary to say that this is a British Leyland decision and out of context—
§ Mr. SpeakerOrder. The hon. Member for Liverpool, Garston (Mr. Loyden) is really putting forward an argument which no doubt he would have liked to make at Question Time. It is not a point of order for me to resolve.