§ Mrs. Dunwoodyasked the Chancellor of the Exchequer if he will make a state- 1000W ment about the meeting of the NEDC on 4th August.
§ Mr. HealeyThe National Economic Development Council considered two main Government papers relating to the industrial strategy and I am arranging for copies of the papers as approved by the Council to be placed in the Library.
On the first paper, on medium-term prospects, the Council approved the following resolution:
The Council considered a working document presented by the Chancellor of the Exchequer dealing with medium term prospects. This was the first of a series of papers on medium term prospects; it was intended not to produce forecasts but to examine the implications of two broad scenarios based on alternative assumptions.The Council unanimously agreed that the first of the two scenarios presented in the current paper (based on no improvement in past performance) was unacceptable; and that only the second scenario provided for a sufficiently rapid return to full employment, based on the expansion of manufacturing industry through increased investment and higher productivity. The Council invited the sector working parties to take this as a starting point for their work in the next round of the Industrial Strategy.The second paper outlined the next steps in industrial strategy based on the work of the tripartite groups concerned with sectors of manufacturing industry. The council unanimously endorsed the proposals.