Advance Factories (Hansard, 18 January 1988)

§ 1. Mr. Morgan
To ask the Secretary of State for Wales if he will provide the figures for each of the last eight years for (a) the average number of jobs per 10,000 sq ft of Welsh Development Agency advance factory space projected, at the time of letting, to be created within three years, and (b) the average number of jobs now actually in existence per 10,000 sq ft of Welsh Development Agency advance factory space.

§ The Secretary of State for Wales (Mr. Peter Walker)
I have placed a copy of the detailed figures in the Library of the House. Since 1980 the annual average number of jobs projected is about 38 per 10,000 sq ft of advance factory space to be achieved when the lettings have reached their full potential, which really takes some years. The actual number of jobs created to date already exceeds 30 per 10,000 sq ft.

§ Mr. Morgan
Does the Secretary of State agree that one of the greatest problems in projecting the value for money to be obtained from expenditure on regional aid is the difference between performance and reality? Does he further agree that his extraordinary claim last week that he was increasing the allocation of regional aid, when in fact he was cutting it, was one of the worst frauds ever perpetrated on the people of Wales and that it combined the worst aspects of door-to-door salesmanship with the persistence of Jehovah Witnesses, although not many of those witnesses claim to be Jehovah?

§ Mr. Walker
I delight in the way in which the Labour party in Wales is distressed at every big piece of good news for the Principality. It is remarkable, in view of the biggest increase in regional aid in any single year in real terms and in cash, to find the hon. Gentleman so distressed. I am delighted to say that his constituents will not be.

§ Mr. Gwilym Jones
I congratulate my right hon. Friend on achieving a 40 per cent. increase in the amount of regional aid for Wales. As the Welsh Development Agency is having to deal with an apparently insatiable demand for new factory space, particularly in Cardiff and south Wales, this must be of tremendous assistance and will offer great opportunities to continue the economic regeneration that the Government have begun so well.

§ Mr. Walker
In fairness my hon. Friend should consider that on the Sunday before the announcement the Opposition spokesman spent the whole day announcing 654 the impending reduction in regional aid. Therefore, when it was increased by 40 per cent. the Opposition were very distressed indeed.

§ Mr. Geraint Howells
If my memory serves me right, the Secretary of State said last week that an extra £50 million-plus would be allocated to the Welsh Development Agency. Can the Secretary of State say how much of that money will be allocated to Mid Wales Development?

§ Mr. Walker
Of course, the mid-Wales area gains advantage from the activities of the Welsh Development Agency as well as from Mid Wales Development. I have increased the Mid Wales Development allocation by a further £1.5 million, which is an increase of about 20 per cent.

§ Mr. Raffan
Is my right hon. Friend aware that his announcement that total Government provision for the WDA and WlNvest is to be increased by 30 per cent.—about one third—in the coming financial year has been particularly welcomed in Clwyd where, due to the economic upturn, the vacancy rate on WDA estates has fallen well below 10 per cent. — a level at which our ability to attract investment can be impaired?

§ Mr. Walker
The announcement has been welcomed not only in Clywd but by trade union leaders, industrial leaders and commercial leaders. The only people who do not welcome it are those in the Labour party.

§ Mr. Roy Hughes
Will the Secretary of State confirm that the number of people employed in WDA factories has gone down in recent years? Should not the Government be setting employment targets for companies that occupy WDA factories? In view of the downward trend, is the Secretary of State not positively alarmed by the report of the independent organisation Manpower, which said after a survey that job prospects for Wales in 1988 are worse than for any other region of Britain?

§ Mr. Walker
If the hon. Gentleman would like to take a wager on the result in 1988 I shall willingly take it from him—perhaps for a mutually agreed charity. If Wales is the worst of any region, perhaps he will give a donation to that charity. I know that the hon. Gentleman, with his usual happy outlook, will be delighted at the fact that the biggest fall in unemployment in Wales since the second world war has taken place in the past 12 months.