§ Mr. Formanasked the Secretary of State for Energy what payments of deficit grant will be made to the National Coal Board in respect of the current financial year; and if he will make a statement.
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§ Mr. Peter Walker[pursuant to his reply, 8 February 1984, c. 592–93]: The NCB has told me that it expects its loss in 1983–84 to be around £875 million. Some £197 million of the loss is attributable to the strike and overtime ban. The remainder reflects the underlying imbalance in the trading position of the board.
Parliamentary approval has already been granted for the payment to the NCB of up to £600 million by way of deficit grant in respect of 1983–84. The Government intend to submit to Parliament a Summer Supplementary Estimate to enable grant payments to be extended to cover the board's deficit in full.
Further deterioration in the board's results was foreshadowed at the time of the Spring Supplementary Estimate. For example, at that time the provision for the losses attributable to industrial action was limited to £30 million; and provision for subsidence damage limited to £162 million—an increase of £60 million on the original budget of £102 million — against the total of £247 million now found necessary.
The Summer Supplementary Estimate will also seek additional provision for the payment of social grants to the NCB and for the redundant mineworkers payments scheme, the need for which arises primarily from the NCB's expectation, announced at the beginning of March, that men will continue to elect to leave the industry at roughly the rate established last year.
If Parliament grants the additional Estimates sought, total subsidies to the coal industry in respect of 1983–4 will exceed £1,300 million. Yet investment in the industry has nevertheless continued to be funded at the rate of £2 million per day.
Support on this scale greatly exceeds anything available to the industry's competitors in Europe. The subsidy element is equivalent to £130 per week for each man on colliery books.