HC Deb 17 April 1985 vol 77 cc249-52
5. Mr. Millan

asked the Secretary of State for Scotland if he will make a statement on the most recent unemployment figures.

Mr. Younger

Although the total numbers unemployed in Scotland fell in March, the seasonally adjusted trend was less favourable. Scotland is expected to share in the 3.5 per cent. growth forecast for the United Kingdom economy this year, and it is our success in producing and selling which will result in more employment opportunities.

Mr. Millan

Is the Secretary of State aware that the latest figures from Strathclyde show that male unemployment in the Govan and Kinning Park area is now no less than 35 per cent.? Is he further aware that similar figures can be quoted for many other parts of Scotland? In those circumstances, it is quite offensive for the Secretary of State to describe a Budget which will do nothing for Scottish employment as tailor-made for Scotland. If he cannot promise us the major changes in economic policy that are required, can he at least tell us what he is doing about particular threats to jobs in Scotland, such as the 1,000 and more at the British Rail workshops in the constituency of my hon. Friend the Member for Glasgow, Springburn (Mr. Martin) and the jobs at the Rowntree Mackintosh factory at Edinburgh, which are to he transferred to England? What is he doing to save those jobs?

Mr. Younger

I share the right hon. Gentleman's great anxiety about local levels of unemployment in his constituency. That is why his area, which is in the centre of Glasgow, still has the highest priority in Scotland and the highest rates of regional assistance. The right hon. Gentleman will have been as delighted as I was at the Govan shipyard winning a £40 million order for a North sea passenger freight ferry, which will be the biggest passenger ship built on the Clyde for 12 years. The right hon. Gentleman has more reason than most to know how difficult it is to keep businesses competitive when the Government keep putting more impositions on it, such as the Labour Government's decision to impose the national insurance surcharge. Industry in Scotland benefits from the rate revaluation, and I hope that the right hon. Gentleman will remember it.

Mr. Malone

Does my right hon. Friend agree that the best hope for the unemployed in Scotland is for the climate for industry to become ever more competitive? Has that not been so under the present Government, and does my right hon. Friend agree that that is why there has been so much inward investment in Scotland in the past 12 months?

Mr. Younger

My hon. Friend is right. The flood of inward investment—"flood" is the word—in the past 18 months or two years shows clearly that the Government's easing of the burdens on industry is producing results. It is worth remembering how Scottish industry would be faring today if it had still to pay the national insurance surcharge — the tax on jobs — which the right hon. Member for Glasgow, Govan (Mr. Milian) and his party imposed when in office.

Mr. Ron Brown

Is it not a disgrace that many miners have been dismissed, not because they are SS officers or friends of the royals, but because they wanted to defend jobs and living standards? Does the right hon. Gentleman agree that it is important that Jack Kane, the former Lord Provost of Edinburgh, be given a further mandate so that the conciliation service in the industry can take effect? Will the right hon. Gentleman support that as a democratic right?

Mr. Younger

I appreciate the hon. Gentleman's anxiety. Some of his constituents are probably worried. Employment with the National Coal Board is a matter for the NCB and its employees, according to the normal procedures. If someone feels that he has been treated unfairly, he should apply for an industrial tribunal to hear his case in the normal way.

Mr. Bill Walker

Has my right hon. Friend noticed that the level of unemployment in Blairgowrie is now just below that of Dundee, and that whereas Dundee enjoys special status, Blairgowrie does not? We find that, with the recent revaluation, Perthshire and Angus are again required to sustain Dundee. We are looking for some sanity and fairness. Will my right hon. Friend speak to his colleagues about travel-to-work areas, as Pitlochry and Blairgowrie can never be described as travel-to-work areas?

Mr. Younger

I appreciate my hon. Friend's views. There are many places in the country where people would wish to see revisions of the travel-to-work areas. This is always looked at very sympathetically when new evidence is produced.

Mr. Wilson

If the Secretary of State believes in the value of indigenous as well as inward investment, will he be more forthright than his hon. Friends in relation to the Trustee Savings Bank in Scotland, which possesses something like £2.5 billion of assets which, if properly deployed, would be advantageous to the Scottish economy? Will he support the view that the TSB should remain a Scottish institution, in the same way as the Scottish Office gave its support to the Royal Bank of Scotland?

Mr. Younger

As to the events which took place in another place yesterday, the hon. Gentleman cannot expect me to go further, except to say that the Government will consider the results of that decision. As to the TSB Bill, there has been close consultation with everyone concerned for at least two years, and at all points TSB Scotland has made it clear that it favours the arrangements at present in the Bill.

Mr. Canavan

How much more Scottish unemployment will be caused by today's Government statement on privatising the naval dockyards? Is there no limit to this Government's doctrinaire privatisation programme? Can we eventually expect to see the British armed forces sold to Securicor?

Mr. Younger

The hon. Gentleman may think that is humourous, but he must have forgotten that the policy of the Labour party is to close down the Trident and Polaris programmes, which means that if there were again to be a Labour Government, which is extremely unlikely, there would be a jobs disaster at both Rosyth and Faslane. The Opposition must face that fact.

Mr. Maclean

For the benefit of those who do not wish to hear, will my right hon. Friend again confirm that the best way to keep down unemployment in Scotland is to ensure the right climate in which industry can compete, by reducing the burdens of national insurance and taxation? Was not the recent Budget one of the best ways of helping to reduce unemployment in Scotland for a long time?

Mr. Younger

I quite agree with my hon. Friend. There is no doubt that the Budget measures were specifically designed to encourage employers to take on new employees, particularly young ones. The extension of youth employment schemes will also be of great benefit to the unemployed. My hon. Friend is also right to point out that the measures that the Government have been taking over a considerable number of years have led to a great increase in confidence. As the latest CBI survey shows, it is expected that 370,000 new jobs will be created in the United Kingdom in 1985. There is no doubt that investment intentions and confidence throughout Scottish industry are now better than in the past.

Mr. Campbell-Savours

Is the right hon. Gentleman aware that, with a view to securing employment in the Scottish brewing industry, Scottish and Newcastle Breweries has launched a bid for Matthew Brown pubs and breweries in the north-west of England? Is he aware that Scottish and Newcastle has refused point blank to give any undertakings on both the future of the rural pubs in Cumbria, where 100 are at risk, and on the jobs of those involved in the two breweries in Cumbria? In the light of my protest, will the right hon. Gentleman now go to the Secretary of State for Trade and Industry and ask that this matter be referred to the Monopolies and Mergers Commission? We do not want the bid to go through.

Mr. Younger

I note what the hon. Gentleman says, but, as he said, this is very much a matter for my right hon. Friend.