§ Mr. Rookerasked the Chancellor of the Exchequer if he will introduce taxation measures which will penalise the users of outdated machine tools as an additional measure to stimulate the machine tool industry.
§ Mr. Denzil DaviesNo. I do not think that such a measure would be a practicable or effective means of stimulating investment. Manufacturers already have a valuable tax incentive to re-equip with new machine tools in the 100 per cent. first-year allowance. The Government have taken a number of other measures aimed at stimulating investment480W in the machine tools industry. These include the provision of £20 million to assist modernisation and rationalisation.