HC Deb 20 January 1992 vol 202 cc3-4
3. Mr. Ray Powell

To ask the Secretary of State for Wales if he will state the number of male and female unemployed in Wales for 1987, 1988, 1989, 1990 and to the present date.

The Secretary of State for Wales (Mr. David Hunt)

In December of each of the years set out in the hon. Gentleman's question, the figures are 97,800, 79,900, 64,100, 72,900 and 95,600 respectively for male unemployed. For female unemployed the figures were 38,600 in 1987, 31,600 in 1988, 21,700 in 1989, 21,000 in 1990 and 26,000 in December 1991.

Mr. Ray Powell

Will the Secretary of State, with the Prime Minister, accept responsibility for the deplorably high level of unemployment in Wales? They both go about the Principality boasting about their actions in terms of foreign investment in Wales. They should be reminded that the major investors coming into Ogwr borough, and Bridgend in particular, were Ford of Bridgend, which was brought in under Jim Callaghan's Labour Government, and the Japanese company, Sony, which was also brought in by a Labour Government. It was the Labour party and a Labour Government who created investment into Wales before the present Prime Minister was even elected to this honourable House. If anyone should be boasting, it is those of us in the Labour party. The sooner the Secretary of State and the Prime Minister come to the Principality, the better: let the voters there decide who should have the credit for what is happening in Wales and also what should be done to the Conservative party in view of the deplorable levels of unemployment to be found in Wales.

Mr. Hunt

I am delighted that the hon. Gentleman has given me the opportunity to report to the House the latest figures for inward investment. The calendar year just finished, 1991, brought new record levels of inward investment to Wales from overseas and the rest of the United Kingdom. I am delighted to report that those new levels consist of 183 projects recorded by Welsh Development International, promising about 17,000 jobs. These are the highest figures ever.

Mr. Livsey

Will the Secretary of State note that unemployment in my constituency of Brecon and Radnor has doubled in the past 12 months? Will he refute the Prime Minister's suggestion that inward investment has come into Wales as a result of lower personal taxation? Will he agree that inward investment is due to the activities of the Welsh Development Agency, some of the lowest wages in Britain and high levels of skills, and that it is the quality of the Welsh work force as much as anything else that has brought inward investment into Wales?

Mr. Hunt

I find this very interesting. I have been concentrating on a report of the Select Committee on Welsh Affairs on Inward Investment into Wales. I thought that the hon. Gentleman was a signatory to the report. I have read carefully the reasons given for the record levels of inward investment that has come into the United Kingdom, including Wales. The Select Committee reported that overseas companies saw the attractions of the United Kingdom—a number of factors are set out—as including, in particular, a favourable tax regime. Has the hon. Gentleman decided to change his mind?

Mr. Grist

Does my right hon. Friend agree that one of the best hopes for the future of south Wales is completion of the Cardiff Bay Barrage Bill, which opposition from so many Labour Members has put in jeopardy?

Mr. Hunt

Yes. I hope that the Opposition will get their act together on the Bill and recognise that it represents enormous investment in Wales and something that will put Cardiff and Wales generally on the world map in a very big way.

Mr. Barry Jones

The Minister's answers are evasive. They do not go to the heart of the questions. I remind the Secretary of State of the haemorrhaging that has taken place, resulting in a severe loss of jobs in Wales for which he bears a heavy responsibility. I refer to just a few examples. At Ferranti in Bangor, there have been 250 job losses, which would be equal to about 2,500 jobs in eastern Wales. Nearly 500 jobs have been lost in the steel industry at Shotton in less than a year. As for apprenticeships in British Aerospace in Clwyd, more than 100 people may not be offered jobs by that great company because of the Government's failed economic policies. We have also lost jobs in the cement industry and there are question marks over the Point of Ayr colliery. Does the right hon. Gentleman realise that since the beginning of the recession unemployment in Wales has increased by more than 38,000, and that during that period he has brought forward not one new policy to help the economy? He should be ashamed.

Mr. Hunt

I am pleased to announce this afternoon that since the last Welsh Question Time, there have been 13 new industrial projects—supported by £6 million of regional selective assistance which had been announced—500 new jobs and the safeguarding of 300 others. I am pleased also to announce a total of more than £6.5 million industrial investment by a further four companies, either expanding, modernising or setting up operations in Wales. I believe that Wales continues to be less severely affected by the recession than the United Kingdom as a whole, but it cannot possibly shield itself from the recession both in the United Kingdom and in the rest of the world.

I have been following the hon. Gentleman carefully. He has been wandering about Wales, giving a spending pledge here and a spending pledge there. He has failed to recognise that the statutory minimum wage policy that he supports would lose Wales 70,000 jobs. He has also failed to recognise that the Welsh people will have to pick up the bill for his spending policies.