Unemployment Forecasts

HC Deb 30 June 1980 vol 987 cc1077-9

14. Mr. Rowlands

asked the Secretary of State for Wales when he expects unemployment in Wales to exceed 100,000.

Mr. Nicholas Edwards

Very soon, I regret to say, if present trends continue.

Mr. Rowlands

It will continue to be 100,000—plus next month, and beyond that to perhaps 120,000 or 130,000. Does the right hon. Gentleman agree that, in these circumstances, it is nonsense to withdraw grants from special development areas and development areas in August 1980, given the enormous upward trend in unemployment and the large number of redundancies, amounting to well over 50,000 in the last 12 months, in the Welsh economy?

Mr. Edwards

I am sure that it is right to concentrate grants on areas that need them most and where the unemployment figures are at their highest.

Sir Anthony Meyer

Does my right hon. Friend agree that if employers in Wales had flexibility over wage levels—which is rendered impossible by nationally bargained increases—it would be substantially easier to attract industry to Wales?

Mr. Edwards

I am certain that in many industries excessively high wage settlements have destroyed jobs.

Mr. Roy Hughes

Does the Secretary of State appreciate that if the puny efforts at factory building in the Newport area are anything to go by, together with the parsimonious attitude of the Government in not granting the town special development area status, Newport is likely, in the not-too-distant future, to be a major contributor to that magical figure of 100,000 unemployed?

Mr. Edwards

We have allocated a major part of the £48 million package to the Newport area and to the Cwmbran area that helps to serve it. I have announced this afternoon a substantial extension of factory building and site provision for Newport.

Mr. Hooson

Does my right hon. Friend agree that failure to tackle the problem of inflation would be a guarantee of even worse unemployment figures?

Mr. Edwards

I am certain that if inflation is not tackled, in the long run the unemployment figures will be even higher. Tackling that problem remains the top priority of the Government.

Mr. Alec Jones

Does the right hon. Gentleman agree that he has just confirmed that under him unemployment in Wales has risen by about 19,000 in one year? If that is a measure of his contribution to Wales, it is one that we could well do without.

Mr. Best

What did the previous Government do?

Mr. Jones

A lot better. Does the right hon. Gentleman agree also that the changes in regional policies announced by the Government last June—partially relieved for Llanwern and Port Talbot by the fiddling extra pieces announced for the Port Talbot and Llanwern steel closure areas—are inadequate to meet the crisis which has now spread to the whole of Wales, not only in steel closure areas but in North Wales, South Wales and Mid-Wales? Has the right hon. Gentleman seen the Manpower Services Commission's review for 1980, which indicates that the proportion of unemployed under the age of 19 will be 20 per cent. in many parts of Wales? What on earth does the right hon. Gentleman intend to do for those young people?

Mr. Edwards

I find it hard to take lectures on unemployment from a member of the Government who more than doubled unemployment in Wales. There were years during which the right hon. Gentleman was responsible for this matter when the figures were quite as bad. Indeed, they have not yet risen to the highest figure that we suffered under his Government.

As for the right hon. Gentleman's suggestion that we should extend to the whole of Wales the highest levels of grant and assistance, he must realise that if we followed that principle throughout the United Kingdom we should have indiscriminate subsidies, which would bring no benefit to the areas which most needed it. If the right hon. Gentleman thinks that that makes a coherent form of industrial policy, he must be capable of believing anything.

Mr. Rowlands

On a point of order, Mr. Speaker. In view of the utterly complacent view of the Secretary of State about unemployment in Wales, I beg to give notice that I shall raise the matter at the earliest opportunity on the Adjournment.