Major Lloydasked the Minister of Supply and of Aircraft Production whether he is aware that makers of mechanical diggers and excavators are unable to deliver for urgent orders under some 44 weeks; and whether mechanical diggers can be released from the Services in the interest of housing schemes and other important work.
§ Mr. LeonardDuring the war a high proportion of the available mechanical diggers and excavators had to be allocated to the combatant Services. Service demands have been greatly reduced, and manufacturers are now at liberty to dispose of machines in the ordinary course of business, subject to according priority to any orders which may be specially indicated to them, such as heavy excavators for open-cast coal production.
Pent-up civil demand has naturally led to a spate of orders, but it is believed that, once these have been worked off, manufacturers will be able to quote reasonable delivery. New production is already being supplemented by Service surpluses, which are being disposed of under the principles laid down in the White Paper on Disposals Policy (Cmd.6539), and as soon as machines are clearly identified as surplus they are ex-peditiously dealt with. In a number of instances Service machines have been made available on loan for urgent civil works.