HC Deb 25 May 1994 vol 244 cc329-30
12. Mr. Riddick

To ask the Secretary of State for Scotland what steps he is taking to encourage new investment by companies which already have a presence in Scotland and by companies from overseas.

Mr. Lang

My officials actively promote Scotland as a location for investment both by indigenous companies and by inward investors. Securing re-investment by existing inward investors is an increasingly important part of Locate in Scotland's work and I have asked it to devote additional resources to that task.

Mr. Riddick

Does my right hon. Friend agree that although in the past 15 years the Conservative Government have created the right climate for investment—with measures such as trade union reform, privatisation and deregulation—Governments also have the capacity to stifle investment? Does he agree that Labour party policies such as giving power back to the trade unions, imposing a minimum wage on industry and embracing the job-destroying social chapter would bring investment in Scotland and the United Kingdom to a grinding halt?

Mr. Lang

My hon. Friend is absolutely right. It is not insignificant that the United Kingdom has secured no less than 40 per cent. of all the inward investment that has come into the single market from outside. That is because we have resisted such measures as those that my hon. Friend mentions. It is no wonder that President Jacques Delors said that the United Kingdom was a paradise for inward investment.

Mr. Chisholm

Is not the real problem the fact that we are second bottom of the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development league in terms of manufacturing investment, which is leading to a decline in the number of manufacturing jobs in Scotland, as evidenced by the announcement last week of further redundancies at Peebles Electric in my constituency? Why could the Secretary of State yesterday only make a do-nothing addendum to the pathetic paper from the President of the Board of Trade? As he obviously has no ideas of his own, may I suggest that he invests in a copy of Labour's alternative policy paper, to be launched next week?

Mr. Lang

Labour's policy would drive inward investment out of the United Kingdom. The Labour party would take on all the extra labour costs espoused by their socialist partners in Europe. That is precisely the distinction between the two parties in the coming European election. As for manufacturing, I can reassure the hon. Gentleman that output in Scotland rose by 2.5 per cent. last year, and the prediction is that it will rise substantially this year. Indeed, our manufactured exports were at a record level of some £11 billion last year.