HC Deb 02 April 1979 vol 965 cc921-3
8. Mr. Cryer

asked the Secretary of State for Industry if he will now make the conclusion of a planning agreement a condition of grant-aid to major private companies.

Mr. Alan Williams

Government policy remains as stated in the White Paper "The Regeneration of British Industry" and during the debate on the Industry Bill 1975 by my right hon. Friend the then Secretary of State for Industry.

Mr. Cryer

Does my right hon. Friend accept that some private enterprise multinationals behave like medieval barons, as Thorn did last year in Bradford when it sacked 2,300 people, put them on the dole, imported hundreds of thousands of items from abroad, stamped them with English names and sold them in the United Kingdom? Does my right hon. Friend agree that these vast multinationals, with a fair degree of financial support from the Government, should show greater public accountability and responsibility to the nation as a whole in the preservation and extension of jobs, and that a future Labour Government must ensure that financial aid is tied to planning agreements?

Mr. Williams

The Government side of the House remains committed to planning agreements, though not necessarily linked to grant provisions. Whether planning agreements are to be made compulsory is a matter for the manifesto. I suggest that we wait until it is published.

Mr. Costain

So that the House may better understand planning agreements, will the Minister of State explain what happens when a company which has entered into a planning agreement of the kind that his hon. Friend the Member for Keighley (Mr. Cryer) wishes get a telegram from an overseas salesman saying that he can get a contract that will enable the company to take on another 1,000 men? Does the company cable back saying "We have a planning agreement. We do not want the contract"? Does he agree that in such circumstances planning agreements make nonsense?

Mr. Williams

This utter claptrap from the Opposition and the CBI has led to a grave misunderstanding of planning agreements. As I have indicated from this Dispatch Box previously—[HON. MEMBERS: "Tell us."] I am delighted to tell hon. Members. Planning agreements, far from being rigid, could hardly be more flexible than in the case of Chrysler, because they made it possible for the company to be taken over.

Mr. Kenneth Clarke

Will the Minister confirm that the only item of industrial policy upon which the Government and the Left Wing of the Labour Party are agreed is that they wish to take statutory powers to force companies to enter into planning agreements? Is he aware that the Opposition regard that as the clearest indication that if there were any chance of a Labour Government being returned to power they would return to the Left wing industrial policies of the first two years of the present Government's period in office?

Mr. Williams

I assure the hon. Gentleman that industry is far more worried about the financial policies projected by the right hon. Member for Leeds, North-East (Sir K. Joseph) than about planning agreements.