HC Deb 29 November 1982 vol 33 cc9-11
10. Mr. Adley

asked the Secretary of State for Industry which industries have shown the greatest growth in the last five years.

The Minister for Industry and Information Technology (Mr. Kenneth Baker)

The high technology sectors, notably information technology, computing services, and aerospace, are prominent among the industries to have shown the greatest growth in the last five years.

Mr. Adley

I welcome the principle of assistance to industry and congratulate my hon. Friend, particularly on what he is doing on telecommunications. Is he satisfied, however, that we devote to modern growth industries a sufficient percentage of the national resources that we allocate to assistance to industry, compared with the huge sums that we have to pour into some of the older industries merely to maintain them in their present position?

Mr. Baker

Both my right hon. Friend the Secretary of State and I have said on several occasions that it would be sensible to shift the balance of support from the older to the newer industries. I am glad to say that under this Government the amount of money that is available for research and development and grants available to companies in the private sector in these new industries has grown from about £50 million a year to about £200 million this year.

Mr. Foster

What has the Minister to say to people in the Northern region, where we have less than our fair share of the fast-growing industries to which he refers? Has he seen the report in today's Financial Times, in which the Northern region director of the CBI says that that region has the lowest number of small business start-ups in Europe?

Mr. Baker

I am as anxious as the hon. Gentleman is to ensure that all regions, particularly the North, the North-West and the North-East, have more high technology companies. I try to promote our schemes in those areas, because I appreciate that many of the new jobs in our economy will come from the new companies and the new industries.

Sir David Price

Does my hon. Friend agree that the industries for which he and his Department are responsible have a far higher utilisation of capital in relation to output? Does he not therefore also agree that the old industries, in so far as they wish to and must bring in new technology, should get the same utilisation of capital? What is happening in Fleet Street shows the bad example that is being set by the media.

Mr. Baker

I do not want to give the impression that this new technology is just for new technology companies. It is essential that traditional and older industries in the Midlands and the North should also use it, or they wall not be in business within the next five years. Many of these newer industries are labour-intensive. The service industries in technology tend to employ infinitely more people in relation to the capital employed than do manufacturing industries.

Mr. John Grant

Is not the real answer to the question the lawyers and liquidators?

Mr. Baker

No. If that is the SDP's net contribution to industrial policy, that party will have an even worse result at the next election than we expect. It is typical. Too many people are selling this country short in achievement and in the potential of the new technologies. My job and that of my colleagues is to ensure that we capitalise and build on that success.

Mr. Robert Atkins

Does my hon. Friend agree, in mentioning aerospace as a growth industry, that there is an urgent requirement, sooner rather than later, for the Government to support the building of the A320 airbus, to safeguard the jobs and future of this high-technology aeroplane?

Mr. Baker

I am well aware of the importance of this project, and I assure my hon. Friend that we are considering it.