HC Deb 13 July 1981 vol 8 cc791-2
12. Mr. D. E. Thomas

asked the Secretary of State for Wales when he next plans to meet the chairman of the Welsh Development Agency.

Mr. Nicholas Edwards

I meet the chairman of the Welsh Development Agency frequently.

Mr. Thomas

Will the right hon. Gentleman visit the agency's factory at Corwen and explain to the 60 unemployed work force how the former directors of the company that operated there, who owe the Welsh Development Agency public money, can set themselves up again in production, having destroyed the unit that was in operation at Corwen?

Mr. Edwards

The WDA has given the company and those who work there full details of the assistance that is available.

Mr. Ioan Evans

Will the Secretary of State ensure that the WDA has the resources to meet the circumstances that it faces? Although advance factories have been built, will the right hon. Gentleman examine the catalogue of firms that have closed in Wales in the last two years? Although the recession has an effect, why, when unemployment in Norway and Austria is at a level of 2 or 3 per cent., is it varying between 13 and 20 per cent. in Wales?

Mr. Edwards

We shall debate the affairs of the Welsh Development Agency in the Grand Committee on Wednesday. Its programme at the moment is by far the largest, in financial and other terms, ever undertaken.

Mr. Best

Does my right hon. Friend agree that the remarkable number of inquiries received by the WDA for factory lettings and its extremely good performance in letting factories demonstrate the interest of people in wanting to come to Wales to set up businesses and provide employment opportunities, notwithstanding the Jeremiah comments of Opposition Members?

Mr. Edwards

It has also done an extremely good job in presenting, the advantages of coming to Wales.

Mr. Anderson

However good a job the agency is doing, will the Secretary of State apologise to its chairman for asking him to undertake a task which is impossible because of the accumulative effect of Government policies, including regional development policy, the decline of IDCs and their policy on office location and dispersal of civil servants? Is he not asking the chairman to perform what is clearly an impossible task in Wales?

Mr. Edwards

The chairman is doing an extremely good job. He would not share the views expressed by the hon. Gentleman.