National Economic Development Council (Hansard, 1 May 1991)

§ 13. Mr. Dunnachie
To ask the Secretary of State for Trade and Industry when he will next meet the director general of the National Economic Development Council to discuss the future of British Industry.

§ Mr. Lilley
My Department has frequent contacts with National Economic Development Organisation officials on a wide range of business matters. I will be chairing the council meeting on 20 May 1991, and I also expect to meet the director general a few days before then.

§ Mr. Dunnachie
Is the Minister aware that, in the last six months, 100,000 manufacturing jobs have been lost as 311 a result of the policies pursued by his Government, and that since 1979 about 2.2 million manufacturing jobs have been lost, again as a result of the policies of his Government? Has he read a recent press report that indicates the depths of the recession that this country is in? When will the Government take the action that is urgently necessary to bring Britain in from the cold, away from recession, and back to a level economy?

§ Mr. Lilley
Manufacturing output fell under the Labour Government, and it has increased under this Administration. Manufacturing exports are 60 per cent. up in volume terms and our share of world trade has been maintained over the past 10 years, a period in which France, Germany, the United States and Japan have all lost some share of world trade to the newly industrialised countries of the far east.

§ Mr. Anthony Coombs
Will my right hon. Friend confirm that, last year, manufacturing investment and exports reached an all-time record high, and that a survey undertaken by the West Midlands chamber of commerce showed that no fewer than seven out of 10 firms intend either to maintain or increase investment in training next year? Will he reiterate that it is part of the hypocrisy of the Labour party's attitude towards manufacturing industry that, when it was last in power, manufacturing output fell and profitability sank to an all-time 20-year low?

§ Mr. Lilley
I entirely agree with my hon. Friend. The latest CBI survey shows the welcome fact that industry expects to maintain spending on research and innovation and to increase spending on training during the recession. These are things that never happened under the Labour Government.