HC Deb 26 July 1984 vol 64 cc755-6W
Mr. Pawsey

asked the Secretary of State for Energy if he will make a statement on the report and accounts for the National Coal Board for 1983–84.

Mr. Peter Walker

The NCB Annual report and accounts for 1983–84, published today, demonstrate the serious financial situation of the board. Last year it made a loss, before deficit grant, of £875 million, equivalent to 18 per cent. of the board's turnover. In the last four years the NCB has lost nearly £2 billion.

Some £200 million of the 1983–84 loss was inflicted needlessly on the industry by the strike and overtime ban. The rest represents an underlying imbalance between the board's costs and revenues. A substantial part of it was caused by a relatively small number of high-cost pits.

Total support from the taxpayer to the coal industry in 1983–84, in the form of grants to the NCB and payments sto redundant mineworkers, was a massive £1.3 billion, equivalent to nearly £130 per week for every employee in the coal industry.

The results for 1983–84 show that the NCB is insolvent. The NCB is able to carry on only because the Government are prepared to underwrite its losses while the industry turns itself round.