National Enterprise Board (Corporate Plan)

HC Deb 01 August 1978 vol 955 cc185-6W

Mr. Morton

asked the Secretary of State for Industry if he will make a statement about the National Enterprise Board's corporate plan, 1977 to 1981.

Mr. Varley

The board's corporate plan, 1977–81, has been reviewed and endorsed in extensive discussions with my Department. The plan re-affirms the objectives identified in the interim policy guidance which I announced in my statement of 1st December 1976 (Official Report, c. 193).

The plan identifies the board's main tasks as being:

1. (i) to ensure the success of its principal subsidiary companies;
2. (ii) to expand the United Kingdom manufacturing base by investment in a limited number of industrial sectors offering the prospect of being internationally competitive in a growing and profitable world market;
3. (iii) to stimulate the growth of exports by encouraging overseas marketing ventures and acting as a source of financial guarantee;
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4. (iv) to encourage the expansion of smaller profitable companies, particularly when such action helps to revitalise industrial activity in areas of high unemployment.

Detailed studies of a number of industrial sectors have been undertaken; this approach is of fundamental importance. The plan identifies priority sectors and refers to the strategies which are being worked out by the board as a means of contributing to the development of these sectors.

The board's strategy, as its guidelines require, takes account of the NEDC industrial strategy. The board, in implementing its strategy, normally seeks to act in co-operation with industry and will be ready to make investments in these priority sectors where this seems an appropriate way of achieving the sectoral objectives of the industrial strategy.

The review of the plan has provided an opportunity for my Department to discuss the board's financial performance and its contribution to productive investment, to employment and to exports. The review covered not only existing but also prospective investments by the board. The plan, and the discussions about it, are commercially confidential, but the board's annual report and accounts, 1977, which I laid before the House on 4th April last, provide a full statement of the board's activities and of its general policy.