§ Mr. Hal Millerasked the Secretary of State for Industry whether he will make a statement on British Leyland's corporate plan.
§ Mr. Norman LamontI am making available in the Library of the House and in the Vote Office a report by BL on its recent performance and details of the corporate plan.
The plan is essentially an updating of the strategy contained in the 1981 corporate plan for returning the company's businesses to viability in the medium term, though it includes radical measures to adjust the scale of the Leyland Trucks business to meet the problems experienced in the past year. The funding requirements in the plan are unchanged.
In his statement to the House of 26 January 1981 my right hon. Friend the then Secretary of State announced that the Government had agreed to fund the first two years of the the 1981 corporate plan—that is, £620 million in 1981–82 and £370 million in 1982–83—subject to the regular monitoring of progress in achieving the plan. In the light of a review of BL's recent performance and prospects, the Government have decided to approve the 1982 corporate plan as a basis for the continued funding of the company up to the end of 1982–83. The BL board and the Government will, of cours, continue to monitor progress.
Sir Michael Edwardes has told me that his letter of 26 January, which was published with my right hon. Friend's statement of that date is still an accurate reflection of the risks that BL faces and of the board's position in the event that its recovery strategy is blown off course.