HL Deb 05 April 1949 vol 161 cc965-78

3.21 p.m.

THE PARLIAMENTARY SECRETARY, MINISTRY OF WORKS (LORD MORRISON)

My Lords, I beg to move that the Special Order as reported from the Special Orders Committee on Wednesday, March 16 last, be approved. The purpose of the Order, as your Lordships will have gathered from the discussions that have just taken place, is to add to the Scottish areas included in the First Schedule to the Distribution of Industry Act, 1945—that is to say, the development areas—the following: (1) an area in the Highlands bordering on the Cromarty and Beauly Firths, and (2) parts of the burghs of Irvine and Linlithgow which are excluded by the present boundary line, which divides these burghs into two parts. As some of your Lordships will be aware, these proposals were announced in the White Paper published last October. They follow a review of the boundaries of the development areas which, under the terms of Section 7 of the Act, had to be carried out within three years of its being passed in June, 1945. As laid down in the Act, a review has been carried out in Scotland jointly by the Board of Trade and the Secretary of State. The local authorities affected have been consulted and, apart from a representation by West Lothian County Council, have offered no objections to the proposals.

The effect of the Order will be that in the areas concerned, under the terms of the Distribution of Industry Act, certain facilities can be given by the Government to encourage industrial development. The chief of these are as follows: first, the provision of industrial sites and the building of factories, at the Government's expense, for lease to private industrial firms; secondly, financial assistance by the Treasury, by way of block grant or loan, towards the cost of establishing new businesses in the area; thirdly, assistance by the Ministers concerned towards the cost of improving basic services, such as roads, water, sewerage and housing. All these facilities have been made available with marked success in the existing development areas. They do not, of course, imply that the Government are prepared to spend money regardless of need. In particular, at the present time it is not generally possible to build factories except for firms whose products can be exported, or which will save imports. Road, housing, water and other works, of course, are affected by the general need to limit capital investment. The scheduling of the areas proposed will mean that they have a measure of special treatment, and are given all the assistance that in present circumstances it is possible for them to have.

May I say a few words about the reasons for the inclusion of the Highlands area? The reasons which have led the Government to include part of the Highlands in the development areas are, briefly, these. As your Lordships know—particularly those from across the Border—the problem of restoring some degree of prosperity to the Highlands and Islands has been engaging the attention of successive Governments. The population of the seven crofting counties in 1947 was about 300,000, compared with 400,000 eighty years before. Unemployment is serious. In the Highlands and Islands as a whole, it averaged, in the years before the war, about 18 per cent. of the insured population. In January, 1948, it was nearly 6 per cent. The actual number of insured workers unemployed in January, 1948, was about 3,400 and, in January, 1949, 4,570. These two figures are not strictly comparable, because the new National Insurance scheme introduced in the middle of 1948 covers a rather wider field than the old Unemployment Insurance scheme, but there is little doubt that the position in January, 1949, was slightly worse than that at the beginning of 1948.

It is clear from these figures that the problem of economic development in the Highlands is a serious one, and needs to be tackled by every means in the Government's power. The scheduling of this area as a development area is, of course, only one—although a very important one—of a number of measures which the Government are taking for the rehabilitation of the Highlands. If I may quote from the White Paper, paragraph 107: The revival of Highland economy depends to a large extent upon the basic industries of agriculture, forestry and fisheries; upon the exploitation of the water-power resources of the area; and upon the encouragement of the tourist traffic. A great deal is being done, or is planned, to achieve these ends, and Government assistance or encouragement is being given otherwise than through the Distribution of Industry Act. A comprehensive programme of developments for the next five years is now in preparation and will shortly be discussed by the Scottish Economic Conference. But although it is only a part of the whole pattern, affecting only a limited area of the Highlands, some further development of productive industry is essential to their economic well-being. With those few remarks, I beg to move.

Moved, That the Special Order as reported from the Special Orders Committee on Wednesday the 16th March last be approved.—(Lord Morrison.)

3.28 p.m.

LORD CLYDESMUIR

My Lords, the noble Lord, Lord Morrison, and I now find ourselves on our native heath where place names have no terrors, and so we are unlikely to come under the fire of the noble Lord, Lord Lucas, who now sits back happily with his task achieved. This Order, although it arises from machinery which is the same as that for the last one, deals with a very different type of area. The Order is in two parts, the first of which provides for boundary adjustments at Irvine and Linlithgow. I believe these adjustments are wise and timely, though I note it was stated by the right honourable Member for Linlithgow in another place that, in his view, they are overdue so far as Linlithgow is concerned. Be that as it may, this is the first review under the Act, and it is, therefore, quite understandable that adjustments should now be made.

I should like to make a few observations on the Highland areas. As the noble Lord, Lord Morrison, has said, the Highland problem has beset successive Administrations for seventy or eighty years. Many steps have been taken from time to time to arrest the depopulation of these areas, and still the problem persists. The noble Lord will be aware of the important part that the Scottish Council (Development and Industry) plays in relation to the survey of Scottish industries, and he will, of course, be aware that the Council has urged that the Highlands should be scheduled as development areas. I therefore think that this Order will be welcomed generally in Scotland as a wise and prudent step. It appears that the comparatively narrow delimitations of the new Order are deliberately intended to concentrate on that part of the Highlands which is most likely to be able to absorb new industries, with the aid of hydro-electric power. The area selected round the Cromarty Firth, including Inverness and running out to the Great Glen, is undoubtedly worthy of development, and it is to be hoped that good results will follow from its selection.

But Highland industries are not altogether as other industries, just as Highlanders are not altogether as other people. It requires careful and scientific study and effort to reproduce and extend all that is good in the indigenous Highland industries, crafts and processes, for these are the industries that have the best chance of survival. No doubt other industries will come, but those which are indigenous to the Highlands will have good prospects and should be fostered.

If this area is to be a success, I think that docking facilities will be necessary. I say that because, if ships of, say, up to 10,000 tons could bring raw materials into the Cromarty Firth, I believe that there are firms which would set up factories there. The importance of getting raw materials cheaply and quickly, which can best be done by water, is very great and therefore I trust that one of the developments in the new area will be the provision of docking facilities to induce the import of raw materials. It is a matter of disappointment to some that the area does not include Fort William and that it does not extend to the south end of the Great Glen. That part of the country near to Fort William appears to be eminently suitable for hydro-electric development and manufactures requiring electricity, for example carbide.

There are also some people in Scotland who have expressed doubt and anxiety about the concentration of work only in the comparatively limited area set out in the Order, round the Cromarty Firth, for they would prefer to see improved opportunities for employment, not in a limited area like that, but in many small towns scattered throughout the Highlands. Their criticism is that the result of this measure might be to draw people from the Highlands into this new area round Inverness, and that would in itself cause depopulation of the glens. I note that the Secretary of State replied to this that it was better to be employed on the doorstep than far away—that is to say at Inverness rather than in the industrial belt of Scotland or over the Border or over the seas—for contact with the glens can be maintained. I think that that is so. None the less, I hope that those who are working this development order will bear in mind that the desirable thing is to keep the population actually on the land of the Highlands, or as near to it as possible.

We must never forget that the oldest industry of all, agriculture, still employs the largest number of people in the Highlands. I do not know whether your Lordships saw an interesting letter in yesterday's Times by Major Fraser, in which he hotly contested encroachment on good agricultural land in the Highlands. It is true that industries developed such as are envisaged here will necessitate some encroachment, but the fact that in our hills, our glens and our valleys lies a great field for meat production from excellent Scottish breeds should not be lost sight of by our planners. Therefore, if development takes place, the question of leaving good agricultural land so far as possible to its proper use must be fully borne in mind. As the noble Lord, Lord Morrison, said, these old industries bulk largely in the welfare of the Highlands—fishing, agriculture and forestry. My belief is that the Forestry Commission can make a big contribution to the revival of the Highlands, and there are signs that they are already doing so.

There is one difficulty which faces all Highland schemes—namely, the cost of freight. I make a strong plea for specially reduced freights for the Highland areas, because it is clear that without some such preferential rates, the benefits which may follow from this Order will be very limited. It is true that there are special rates for bulk traffic applicable to all parts of the country, but compared with the bulk of manufacture in other parts, Highland traffic is likely to be small, and the quantity which will attract those special rates will seldom be reached. I therefore urge special consideration of reduced freights for the Highlands, run in conjunction with this scheme. I know this has been frequently urged, but it wants just an extra push to secure it. If the nationalisation of railways and road transport is to bring any real benefit to the Highlands, then the special character of these remote parts must be recognised and must receive special treatment. I believe it will be in the national interest to do so, in order that the Highlands may be preserved. So far as it goes, this Order is a wise and proper step. I should like to see it covering a wider area, but it is not an instrument that we can amend; we must take it or leave it. So we take it and accord it a welcome.

3.37 p.m.

THE DUKE OF MONTROSE

My Lords, after the most informative speech by my noble friend, Lord Clydesmuir, I suppose I ought to know all about this Distribution of Industry Order but, as people sometimes say that the Scots are hard-headed, dour and ill to please, possibly I am all that, and more. I would like, however, to ask for a little further information about this proposed Order. It seems to me that the Order is really twofold. Its first object, I gather, is to make provision and give power to the Secretary of State to alter the boundaries and the limits of certain areas in the existing schedule of development areas. I suppose the object of that is, chiefly, to facilitate administrative and financial arrangements in the event of extra unemployment. I see no harm in that but I do not think it will be a great advantage.

As regards the second object, which is to give the Secretary of State powers to bring in a new Highland Order in the event or likelihood of excessive unemployment, being a Highlander I happen to know most of the area which it is pro posed to schedule. There is no real unemployment there today, and little likelihood of extra unemployment there in the near future, or for some years to come. I know the area fairly well, and it is mainly agricultural. Agriculture is doing very well indeed in that part of the Highlands, and it is likely to do better still as time goes on.

If there is any unemployment, it is not because of lack of industry; it is because of lack of houses. The men in this Highland area, skilled men and others who would work on the farms and in agriculture, can find nowhere to live, and therefore they cannot get employment. We would be spending our time to better advantage if, instead of giving powers to the Secretary of State to schedule a possible area, which only involves more paper work and more "jobs for the boys," we did something practical to give employment in the event of any prospect of unemployment—and we can do that by providing for the building of houses. We should spend our time better in planning something real, something that will give real employment, than in talking about adding to the development areas a district where unemployment is very unlikely to take place. Of course, it may be that the Secretary of State has in view some particular industrial enterprise that he wishes to have powers to establish—powers which he would get if this Order went through. If we are to have any additional enterprise brought into the area to make use of the electric power we have taken there, surely we do not want urban interests brought in, because the men are already leaving the land fast enough in order to go to the towns. We want rural industries established, and not urban industries. What we would like to know is whether the Secretary of State has any idea in his head of establishing particular new enterprises. If so, what are they; and are they suitable to an agricultural area or are they not? That is what we want to know, and that is the information for which I beg to ask.

3.42 p.m.

VISCOUNT ELIBANK

My Lords, I wish to welcome this Order as being a step in the right direction. I have been interested to listen to the speeches this afternoon, because they have dealt almost entirely with the Highlands. I was also interested to read the speech of the Secretary of State for Scotland in another place, as practically the whole of his speech introducing this Order dealt with the Highlands. I do not fully understand the Order, any more than does my noble friend the Duke of Montrose. I am not clear whether this Order applies only to small parts of the Highlands or whether it applies to the whole of the Highlands. If it applies only to a small part of the Highlands, I suggest to His Majesty's Government that they ought to have a development order applying to the whole of the Highlands, and that they ought to work out a big planned scheme for developing the Highlands along lines which Highland men and women understand. It has been suggested this afternoon that if factories were established, say, at Cromarty, they would draw men from the glens and from the farm-steadings in the crofts of the rural areas. I think that that would probably be the final effect, indeed that is bound to be the effect, unless there are proper rural industries in these out-of-the-way places where the men and women can work.

Certain industries have been referred to this afternoon by the noble Lord, Lord Morrison—afforestation, for instance. What has happened with regard to afforestation? I do not know whether I am right, but I understand that the amount of money which was allocated for the purposes of afforestation in the United Kingdom has been split up into certain sums, to be spent so much in one country and so much in the other. I suggest to His Majesty's Government that, so far as the Highlands are concerned, a sum ought to be allotted, quite apart from any ordinary expenditure that may come out of the round sum given for that purpose, to be expended on afforestation there. The same applies with regard to agriculture. Agriculture is at a low ebb. For instance, we are told that every year, at one time, something like 250,000 store cattle used to pass through the Falkirk markets near Stirling. How many pass through to-day? I would not venture to say, but they would be comparatively few. The sheep have been going off the hills; they are not there in anything like the same numbers that they used to be. What about pigs? Pigs can be produced in large numbers in the Highlands, and with the hydro-electric schemes (which perhaps are coming in too great a number at the present moment) bacon factories could be erected and be provided with the necessary raw material.

Then what about the woollen industry? The Secretary of State for Scotland suggested that there ought to be a carpet industry in the Highlands. Why not? But if a textile industry is to be developed in the Highlands, then I sincerely hope it will not be treated as was the hand-woven loom industry in the Orkneys and Shetlands the other day—namely, by putting on a prohibitive purchase tax. If such schemes are to be developed, I suggest that the Secretary of State for Scotland must be advised not only by the Board of Trade but also be in close consultation—hand-in-glove consultation—with the Chancellor of the Exchequer, so that what they do on the one hand is not destroyed by the Chancellor of the Exchequer on the other.

We have been told this afternoon that these schemes are worked out by the Secretary of State for Scotland, in consultation with the Board of Trade. I am not certain whether the Board of Trade to which the noble Lord referred is the Board of Trade in Whitehall or a special Board of Trade which is being established at St. Andrew's House. Perhaps the noble Lord will enlighten us upon that point. I would, however, venture to suggest that there ought to be some properly constituted body, apart from that at St. Andrew's House, which the Secretary of State for Scotland could consult in these matters. The noble Lord spoke about the Scottish Advisory Council—that nebulous, secretive council which never makes a report and always functions behind a black curtain. That does not seem to me to be the form of Council which will help us in Scotland to restore the Highlands. If, however, that is the Council to be utilised, will His Majesty's Government, or the Secretary of State for Scotland, use that Advisory Council in such a way that the people of Scotland may know what it advises and what it considers should be done?

It seems to me that £10,000,000 might have been taken from the extravagant ground-nuts scheme in Tanganyika, on which already £50,000,000 has been expended with very little advantage. If £10,000,000 of that money had been taken and allocated to the Highlands, to be spent on a properly conceived plan of development for the Highlands, based on their natural resources and along lines which the Highland people understand, we should have made a good start in the last two years towards resuscitating the Highlands, and helping to restore that part of Scotland to prosperity and, at the same time, to build up its population. I suggest that if the Government continue with a scheme of this nature—I call it a niggling scheme, compared with the magnitude of the interests involved—then in ten years' time the population of the Highlands will probably have gone down another 20 per cent. below its present level. The noble Lord, Lord Morrison, told us that the population in January last showed a decline compared with the population of the year before—or of a few months before.

LORD MORRISON

Will the noble Viscount forgive my interrupting? What I said was that last January the unemployment figure showed a slight increase, but that the population had declined over a period of eighty years.

VISCOUNT ELIBANK

The population is certainly not increasing now, and the probability is that, unless the Government bring forward some really large and practical scheme, the population will decrease. I have the greatest sympathy for what has been said by other noble Lords who have spoken about the problems of the Highlands, and I would conclude by saying that, while I welcome the Order, because through such an Order a start can be made, I should like to see an Order on a very much larger basis brought forward as soon as possible.

3.53 p.m.

LORD MORRISON

My Lords, may I express my thanks to all the noble Lords who have taken part in this short but interesting debate, and, with your Lordships' permission, very briefly answer one or two points which have been raised. I will, if your Lordships will allow me, answer them, so to speak, in reverse order. The noble Viscount who has just spoken complains that the present Government have not spent £10,000,000 in developing the Highlands. Surely he has forgotten that the present Govern ment have been to a very considerable extent responsible for the development of the Scottish Hydro-Electric Board, which is going to spend, when all the work that is contemplated and, indeed, has been commenced, is completed, approximately something like £50,000,000.

VISCOUNT ELIBANK

Will the noble Lord forgive my interrupting him, but is he quite right in saying that the present Government are responsible for the whole of the hydro-electric development in the Highlands to-day? If my recollection serves me aright, this was started under the Coalition or National Government, and a great deal was done under that Government before the present Government came into power. I really cannot let the noble Lord get away with that.

LORD MORRISON

I think that if the noble Viscount reads the OFFICIAL REPORT he will see that I did not say that the present Government were solely responsible—I said they were largely responsible. I think every fair-minded person in Scotland would admit that since 1945 the present Government have not been lacking in their efforts in connection with the Hydro-Electric Board and its projects. They have done their best to assist in every way. I find that the noble Viscount always assumes a delightful air of simplicity and innocence in dealing with these matters. He said that he does not know what this Order covers, and he expressed the opinion that it ought to apply to the whole of the Highlands. It is clearly stated in the Order, which I have moved and which is available to very noble Lord, what the Order covers. The fact that he raises the question of whether or not it ought to apply to the whole of the Highlands rather indicates that the noble Viscount has not, perhaps, paid sufficient attention to what the Order is and the Act of Parliament under which the Order is proposed. An alternative to selecting this area would have been what he advocates—to schedule the whole of the Highlands, which would have been much too large an area and would have included some places such as Fort William where there is a serious scarcity of labour. The object of the Act is to deal with unemployment, whether it arises in special circumstances or in special areas. In Fort William, as I say, there is a scarcity of labour, and, as the noble Viscount knows well, there are very isolated areas in the Highlands which are not large enough and are not suitable in other respects to cater for any substantial industrial development.

The noble Duke said that Scotsmen were hard-headed and ill to please. I must say, straight away, that my experience has been: hard-headed, yes, but ill to please, no. The very fact that noble Lords opposite have permitted me to stand up for the cause of Scotland so often from these Benches bears out what I say—that they are not ill to please. The noble Duke raised three points. He said that he was particularly interested in the type of industries which it was hoped to attract to the new development area. He was also concerned lest serious unemployment should develop in what is primarily an agricultural area. His last point, I think, related to the question of housing. The industries which will probably have most prospect of successful operation in the Highlands, I suggest, are those which are based on the resources of the area, for example, canning or quick-freezing industries which make use of the agricultural produce of the area, industries based on forestry products or industries which require substantial quantities of electric power, to be derived from the new hydro-electric schemes. But I would emphasise that much will depend on the response made by private industry to the new facilities now to be made available, under this Order, in the area under Government auspices.

The noble Duke would doubtless like to know what exactly are the precise figures of unemployment. Precise figures are not available of the amount of unemployment in Dingwall, since this area is included in the Inverness Employment Exchange area and figures are available only for the district as a whole. On February 14, 1949, the numbers unemployed in the Inverness area were 388 men and 171 women, a total of 559. As was indicated in the White Paper on Distribution of Industry, the area selected for development area purposes has been chosen because of its suitability as a focal centre of industrial development for the Highlands as a whole, and not merely because of its local unemployment.

The noble Duke raised the very serious question—perhaps the most serious question—of housing. The housing situation in the Highlands as a whole is difficult, as it is in the rest of the country. The noble Duke will be glad to know that the rate of progress of local authority housing has recently improved, and preliminary arrangements have been made for the importation into the Highlands and Islands of 1,000 prefabricated Swedish timber houses, 250 of which are earmarked specifically for industrial workers. These houses are particularly well adapted for erection in the Highlands, not only because of their appearance and construction, but also because the timber components of which they are made can readily be transported to remote areas.

I should like to thank the noble Lord, Lord Clydesmuir, for his very helpful remarks. He raised the question of the Great Glen. He may be interested to know that the survey of the Great Glen which was conducted last year by the Department of Health in consultation with other Departments has now been considered by the Advisory Panel on the Highlands and Islands and by the Scottish Economic Conference. The Secretary of State hopes to arrange for the publication of the report before long. The noble Lord also raised the very important question of the cost of freight in that area. It is true that transport charges between the Highlands and the remaining parts of Great Britain are in general high, and that these high charges have a serious effect on industry and commerce in the Highlands. The Scottish Council (Development and Industry) and other bodies have frequently drawn attention to the difficulties caused by these transport charges.

Under Section 76 of the Transport Act, 1947, the British Transport Commission are bound to draw up charges schemes for confirmation by the Transport Tribunal, and it is the duty of the Commission, within two years from the passing of the Act or such longer period as the Minister allows, to draw up these schemes, and when they are prepared it will be open to interested persons to submit objections. The Scottish Council have already sent a deputation to the Transport Commission to draw their attention to the difficulties arising from the heavy transport charges in the Highlands, and there is no doubt that when the charges schemes are prepared they will be looked at very critically by all parties interested in the welfare of the Highlands. The consideration of the charges schemes will provide an opportunity for raising any necessary objections. I should like to thank those noble Lords who have taken part in this brief discussion for the helpful contributions they have made.

On Question, Motion agreed to.