Advance Factories (Hansard, 15 May 1978)

§ 12. Mr. Anderson
asked the Secretary of State for Wales how many advance factories have been allocated in the current year and if he will make a statement.

§ Mr. John Morris
To date in 1978, 53 advance factories have been formally or provisionally allocated covering over ½ million sq. ft. to provide an estimated 2,740 jobs. In the corresponding period last year, the total was 13 factories covering 192,000 sq. ft. to provide 750 jobs.

§ Mr. Anderson
Is my right hon. and learned Friend aware that those figures, showing an increase year on year, will be very welcome? Can he also confirm that, looking at the past six months, we are also on a rising trend in terms of advance factory allocation?

§ Mr. Morris
I hope that I shall be able to satisfy my hon. Friend on that point. I shall be announcing today the letting of 12 advance factories—a substantial total to announce in one day. The numbers of inquiries and applications for selective assistance have risen substantially as compared with the same period last year. We are certainly on a rising trend.

§ Mr. Grist
May I ask the Secretary of State to tell me whether one of the 12 factories which he is to announce today is the 50,000 sq. ft. factory at Pentwyn, 15 in my constituency, as he has been saying for over three years that he has been expecting to be able to let it at any moment?

§ Mr. Morris
That factory is not being announced today as having been let. I can assure the hon. Gentleman that a factory of that size is certainly an attractive proposition, and I am anxious that we get a suitable tenant for it.

§ Mr. Wigley
Does not the Secretary of State realise that something over 2,000 jobs in advance factories at a time when we have 90,000 people unemployed is totally unsatisfactory? Has he seen an article in a recent issue of New Scientist which contained a devastating analysis of the failure of the advance factory programme in Gwynedd? When will the Government tackle the problem?

§ Mr. Morris
The hon. Gentleman should realise that advance factories are only a part of the answer to the problem. It would be churlish of the hon. Gentleman not to welcome the fact that 2,740 jobs are expected in a matter of months. The other side of the coin is the enormous efforts the Government are making to decentralise Government Departments and send jobs to Wales. It is odd that the hon. Gentleman should campaign for more jobs for Wales yet his party should be against the decentralisation of Government Departments, particularly the move of the Ministry of Defence to Cardiff.