HC Deb 17 November 1982 vol 32 cc262-3
4. Mr. Dewar

asked the Secretary of State for Scotland how many people are registered as unemployed in Scotland at the latest convenient date whose last recorded job was in the construction industry.

Mr. Allan Stewart

On 13 May 1982, the last date on which an industrial analysis of the unemployment register was undertaken, 46,521 people who had last worked in the construction industry were registered as unemployed in Scotland.

Mr. Dewar

Does the Minister accept that it is crazy to have a policy that combines unacceptably high unemployment in the construction industry with a miserably inadequate building programme? Does he further accept that it is not good enough for him to suggest in a rather frantic and cosmetic manner that there should be an increase in expenditure, at the fag end of the year, under the house improvement programme? That is no substitute unless he is prepared to do something about the revenue implications of an increased capital spending programme.

Did the Minister hear the Tory leader of the Lothian regional council make that point forcefully on Scottish television and say that he had two brand new old people's homes in Lothian into which he could not put a single person because he could not make the necessary provision from his revenue budget? Will the Minister do something about that?

Mr. Stewart

The construction industry will benefit substantially from the recent success of the Government's counter-inflation policy in reducing interest rates and the national insurance surcharge. We are defending the capital programme. If the hon. Member for Glasgow, Garscadden (Mr. Dewar) is worried, he should take up with his friends in local Labour authorities the fact that the Scottish construction industry has been deprived of more than £50 million of capital spending because of their rate fund contribution policy.

Mr. Russell Johnston

Would it be a sensible, if modest, contribution to the problems of the construction industry, as well as making good conservation sense, for the Government to increase the grant for house insulation for old-age pensioners from 90 to 100 per cent.?

Mr. Stewart

There are arguments against 100 per cent. grants, as I am sure the hon. Gentleman will appreciate. I emphasise what the Government have done about improvement grants. We have lifted the spending limits on improvement grants for the remainder of the financial year. The hon. Member for Garscadden described that as cosmetic, but those who benefit will not see it in the same light.

Mr. Myles

Will my hon. Friend have a word with our right hon. and learned Friend the Chancellor of the Exchequer and urge him to make all employment tax deductible, so that workers who were formerly employed in the construction industry might obtain a job in personal employment?

Mr. Stewart

I am sure that my hon. Friend is more than capable of making his own representations to the Chancellor.

Mr. Tom Clarke

Is it not outrageous that the Prime Minister should have given the impression last week that local authorities in Scotland have not chosen to use all of their capital allowance, and that the Minister should seek to add to that confusion today? Will the Minister use his influence to obtain a reasonable capital allowance for local authorities, coupled with the necessary revenue approval, so that jobs can be made available?

Mr. Stewart

The hon. Member has not followed the Scottish announcements. We have made it clear that the serious underspending problem in England is not paralleled north of the border. We have also brought forward a series of measures on general capital allocation and on non-housing revenue account to assist local authorities to meet the resources made available to them.

Mr. McQuarrie

Does my hon. Friend agree that the construction industry is always the first to feel the recession and the first to get out of it? Does he accept that the recent announcement by the oil companies at Sullom Voe and St. Fergus, headed by Total Oil, will involve the engagement of 3,000 construction workers during the next year, which will be an added advantage for the construction industry in Scotland?

Mr. Younger

My hon. Friend is right to point to the importance of oil industry developments for the construction industry in Scotland. I am sure that the Scottish construction industry is well able to meet these challenges.