§ Mr. Lomasasked the Secretary of State for Industry if he will publish the reasons why he did not agree with the working party report prepared by the joint Yorkshire water authority and the wool textile delegation.
§ Mr. Les HuckfieldThis report provides much useful information, notably about comparative charges to the wool textiles industry for water and trade effluent treatment within the EEC. The Government have not disputed these findings. However, we have not accepted the major recommendation to Government, which was that an annual subsidy of some £750,000 should be paid to wool scourers in Yorkshire to compensate them for the estimated difference in effluent treatment costs between Yorkshire and the Lille area of France. This would be contrary to the "polluter pays" principle, and the grave difficulties such a subsidy would cause, both domestically and within the EEC, have already been explained to the industry. Moreover, a subsidy cannot he justified by looking at one isolated element in production costs; in respect of water charges and labour costs, for example, the industry has an advantage over its competitors in France.
§ Mr. Lomasasked the Secretary of State for Industry if he will make a statement on the Lo-Flo scouring process, stating when he considers this method could be adopted throughout the United Kingdom.
§ Mr. Les HuckfieldThe Lo-Flo scouring process, which was developed in Australia, is claimed to reduce significantly both water usage and, by reducing the amount of solids in effluent discharged to the sewers, the costs of effluent treatment. One plant is installed in a United Kingdom company and is under test. The nature of the process and the claims made for it have been widely publicised and are well known in the wool scouring industry. There are other new systems of wool scouring, such as the Wronz process developed in New Zealand, for which similar claims are made. No single system is likely to meet the requirements of all scouring companies. Whether to invest 709W in any of them, and the timing of such investment, are matters for decision by the companies, not by the Government, though I have made it clear that financial assistance could be given to viable projects of this kind.
§ Mr. Lomasasked the Secretary of State for Industry if he has investigated the possibilities of obtaining a subsidy for the Lo-Flo system from the EEC.
§ Mr. Les HuckfieldI am not sure what my hon. Friend has in mind, but financial assistance to wool scourers intending to modernise their scouring plant can be made available under the Industry Act 1972, provided that the investment project is judged to be viable.