HC Deb 18 March 1996 vol 274 c14
15. Mr. Hain

To ask the Secretary of State for Wales what assessment he has made of the impact of the valleys programme. [19387]

Mr. Gwilym Jones

The programme for the valleys has had a major impact on the area. Unemployment in the valleys is now 22.6 per cent. lower than it was in 1988, when the programme began, compared with a fall of 12.5 per cent. in Wales as a whole and of 1.3 per cent. in the United Kingdom.

Mr. Hain

Those figures simply do not match the reality on the ground. One in three adult men in valley communities are out of work, and many such communities are dying. The Minister and the Government should promote a new, positive programme to attract investment from the M4 corridor to ensure that valley enterprise zones are established which attract investment through subsidising employers who locate in those communities. We must repair the damage caused by Tory neglect, which has seen rising crime, increasing joblessness and social decay. We need a new strategy, or valley communities will die.

Mr. Jones

The hon. Gentleman does not want to accept the facts. There has been substantially more progress in fighting unemployment in the valleys, even, than in the rest of Wales and progress is far greater in Wales than in the United Kingdom as a whole. We are committed to the valleys programme and, occasionally, even the hon. Gentleman has made a positive contribution on that subject.

Since December 1994, we have sought to take forward the marketing of 20 exciting sites in order to do what the hon. Gentleman suggests—draw inward investment from the M4 and into the valleys. That does not sit well with the hon. Gentleman and his colleagues who make a career—a life style—out of running down Wales and selling it short at every opportunity. The greatest engine for industrial progress in Wales, the Welsh Development Agency, is constantly rubbished by Opposition Members. What result do they expect from that?

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