§ 11. Mr. Campbell-Savoursasked the Secretary of State for Industry whether he will discuss with the Moss Bay Enterprise Trust the regeneration of the local economy in west Cumbria.
§ Mr. Norman LamontOfficials of the Department of Industry are in regular contact with the Moss Bay Enterprise Trust and other Local agencies in west Cumbria. I am well aware of the position there.
I take this opportunity to commend to the House the sterling work being undertaken by MOBET in the area.
§ Mr. Campbell-SavoursIs the Minister aware that if the regeneration of west Cumbria's economy is to proceed on the basis of the past three years' experience of job creation, it will take 20 years before the 4,000 people who have been put out of work by the Government find jobs? Is he further aware that the unemployed in my constituency are angry and desperate and that Conservatives in west Cumbria maintain that the Government did not have a mandate to create the level of unemployment that they have created during the past three years? Can west Cumbria's special development area status, which was introduced by the Labour Government, who were sympathetic to and understood the problems of west Cumbria, but removed by the present Government, be reinstated?
§ Mr. LamontThe hon. Gentleman has gone a long way from the Moss Bay Enterprise Trust. He omitted to mention that west Cumbria has received more than £100 million of regional assistance since this Government came to office, supporting £600 million of investment since 1979. West Cumbria is a development area. Its level of unemployment is close to the average for development 11 areas. There are some encouraging signs in west Cumbria. Thames Board has announced a £100 million modernisation and the Leyland bus plant has announced centralisation of production, thereby creating 300 new jobs. The position is not quite as the hon. Gentleman made out.