§ 14. Sir Raymond Gowerasked the Secretary of State for Wales how many new industrial undertakings have been commenced in Wales during the past 12 months in advance factories and with help from the industry department of his Department, respectively.
§ Mr. Nicholas EdwardsPrecise information is not available, but I estimate that more than 180 advance factories have been occupied in the past year, promising nearly 4,000 jobs. Some of these factories will, of course, have been allocated in the previous year. I can also inform 13 the House that 251 factory units were allocated between January and the middle of November this year, totalling 1.4 million sq ft. Of these, 68 units were at Cwmbran.
§ Sir Raymond GowerIs my right hon. Friend aware that this is a remarkable achievement in all the circumstances? Will he express his recognition of this to all those concerned, including the members of the development corporation?
§ Mr. EdwardsI shall pass my hon. Friend's remarks to the Welsh Development Agency and to the new town authority and the DBRW, which have helped to achieve this remarkable result. The development corporation also deserves our thanks and congratulations. My hon. Friend used the words used by my predecessor in 1978—"a remarkable achievement". At that time the figures were not as good as these.
§ Mr. Roy HughesWhy does the Secretary of State Indulge in such fantasies with these optimistic forecasts about the economy? It is as though he had become a compulsive reader of Grimms' fairy tales, whereas the reality is that unemployment is reminiscent of the levels of the 1930s, with only one in five of our companies in Wales working to capacity, with redundancies continuing apace, with mortgages soaring—
§ Mr. SpeakerThe hon. Gentleman must ask a question and not merely give information.
§ Mr. Hughesrose—
§ Mr. Edwardsrose—
§ Mr. SpeakerOrder. I think that the hon. Member for Newport (Mr. Hughes) is coming to the end of his question.
§ Mr. HughesWhy does not the Secretary of State realise the terrible depression that we are in and call for a complete turn round in the Government's policy?
§ Mr. EdwardsThese are not fantasies. They are facts. I was about new industrial undertakings and factory allocations. I have given the details. They are record figures, and I am entitled to draw them to the attention of the House.
§ Mr. SpeakerMr. Delwyn Williams. Question No. 15.
§ Mr. SpeakerI had a message from the hon. Member for Montgomery (Mr. Williams) that he might be delayed and be unable to be present for his question. Perhaps I should not have called it.