§ Mr. TOOTILLasked the Minister of Munitions whether he is aware that in the sale of machines at the National Shell Factory at Washwood Heath, which is being dismantled, machines costing £420 were disposed of for £10 each, whilst the price for Otis boring lathes averaged £35; whether the prices realised on the majority of the lots sold were scrap prices; and whether, in view of the great shortage of and the high prices prevailing for new machinery, it is proposed to take steps to secure that in any future sale of national property prices more in accordance with the value of the property disposed of shall be realised?
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§ Mr. THOMAS GRIFFITHSasked the Parliamentary Secretary to the Ministry of Munitions whether he is aware that the National Shell Factory at Washwood Heath is being dismantled and that the plant has been put up for auction; whether he is aware that at the recent sale firsts-class machine tools which cost large sums of money were sold out at scrap prices, thus for example a machine which cost over £400 was knocked down for only £10; will he state who was responsible; and whether those responsible will be made to refund the loss to the nation?
§ Mr. KELLAWAYMy attention was called to the newspaper report on which the statements in the questions are based. The facts are as follows: The shell factory had to be dismantled and the building returned to its original owner. The whole of the machinery was secondhand, and it was estimated that the original cost was £100,000. The sale realised £54,000, which, in the circumstances, must be regarded as very satisfactory.
Those of the machines which were capable of being used for commercial purposes fetched excellent prices, and in some cases more than their original cost. A number of machines were single-purpose machines, which could only be adapted for some other purpose at considerable expense, even supposing any use could be found for them. The storage and transport of these machines is a costly business, and owing to the heavy nature of the castings the breaking down would also be very expensive.
For these reasons, it is not a matter for surprise that some of the secondhand single-purpose machines, for which there was no longer any use, realised little more than scrap prices.
I think it is necessary that the House should realise that there is a quantity of single-purpose secondhand machinery no longer required for war purposes, which has to be disposed of, and that in many instances it will be cheaper to dispose of such machinery even at something like scrap value rather than to face the cost of storage, transport, and breaking down.