HC Deb 12 January 1981 vol 996 cc732-4
2. Mr. Dormand

the Secretary of State for Industry what further proposals he has for bringing industry to the Northern region.

The Minister of State, Department of Industry (Mr. Norman Tebbit)

New investment will be attracted or repelled by the experience of companies which have invested in the area in the past. It will be induced by the initiative, enterprise and productivity of management and workers rather than by Government measures alone, but the more selective regional policies my right hon. Friend announced in July 1979 will concentrate the regional assistance which we can give on the areas of greatest need, including the North.

Mr. Dormand

Is the Minister aware that the Government's puny efforts to bring industry to the North are causing deep and widespread anger in the region? Is he further aware that it was direct Government action which stopped Civil Service jobs from going to the North, that the Government have given no encouragement whatever to Inmos to locate a microchip manufacturing unit there and that they propose to move the headquarters of the region from Newcastle to Leeds, which is not even in the region? As the Secretary of State has now been considering for several months the establishment of a Northern development agency, which would make a bigger contribution than any other factor, when will there be some kind of Government action in regard to the Northern region?

Mr. Tebbit

The hon. Gentleman is mistaken on a number of points. First, he cannot describe as "puny" aid which under section 7 of the Industry Act was valued at £34.3 million between May 1979 and November 1980 and another £1.7 million under section 8. Those are not small sums. They must be found from elsewhere. He asked that Inmos should establish its factory in the Northern region. However, he must be aware that a case has been put forward to locate it in Wales, and as he knows, that case has gone a long way. I am aware of the hon. Gentleman's suggestion with regard to an agency for the North. I shall look at what he said, but the most important thing—[Interruption.] Perhaps the hon. Gentleman will stop waving his arms and shouting. The most important thing that can be done is for firms whicn are at present in the North to be made more prosperous by the efforts of their employees. I hope that the hon. Gentleman will lend his support to that.

Mr. Lennox-Boyd

When my hon. Friend considers the question of a Northern development agency, will he bear in mind that some areas of the Northern region—namely, the northern part of the Morecambe and Lonsdale constituency—were traditionally in the North-West and that if he creates such an agency, he will create an opportunity for calls for other development agencies in different parts of the country? Surely that would be self-defeating in respect of the suggestion that has been made.

Mr. Tebbit

My hon. Friend is absolutely right. We would then be in the position of everyone having a development agency and no one being any the better off.

Dr. John Cunningham

First, I congratulate the hon. Gentleman on his appointment. Like his right hon. Friend, by the answer which he has given he tries to lead people to believe that Government policy has nothing to do with this country's industrial decline, which is the worst since the 1930s. We refute that. On the specific problem of aid to the Northern region, it is not good enough for the hon. Gentleman to say that he will consider the point put by my hon. Friend the Member for Easington (Mr. Dormand). That is what his right hon. Friend has been telling us for more than 12 months. In the meantime, unemployment is mounting inexorably. When he talks—

Hon. Members

Too long.

Mr. Speaker

Order. I was just about to rise. The hon. Gentleman must ask a question. It is not debating time now.

Dr. Cunningham

When the Minister talks about value for the taxpayers' money, does he really believe that the attitudes and policies adopted by companies such as Courtaulds, which has been given considerable assistance from the taxpayer, are in this country's interests?

Mr. Tebbit

I have been in the Department for less than a week—[HON. MEMBERS: "Too long."]—and I shall take a view of what can be done to improve the manner in which the North is marketed, for example, towards overseas investment. I shall certainly do that. But the hon. Gentleman must make up his mind. Government aid is not the principal factor in attracting investment to a region. What will attract investors is the experience of others who have invested in that region. The hon. Gentleman would do best to get back to the North—and the sooner he goes back the better—and urge upon those there the need to make their industries more competitive.