§ Mr. CallaghanTo ask the Secretary of State for Trade and Industry if he will make a statement on prospects for the car industry.
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§ Mr. LeighThe outstanding export performance of the United Kingdom car industry over the past year has done much to alleviate the short term difficulties which the recent slump in domestic demand has caused. In addition, the medium and long-term prospects for the industry look excellent. In particular the inward investment projects currently being undertaken by Nissan, Toyota and Honda look set to have a profoundly positive effect on the United Kingdom car manufacturing sector. Last week's announcement that Nissan is to increase production at its Sunderland plant to 270,000 units a year by next year, creating 600 new jobs, is of course very welcome, and will serve to continue the revolution which the United Kingdom supplier industry is currently undergoing as a result of the exacting requirements demanded by Nissan, and indeed increasingly by the longer established vehicle builders. Such developments mean that annual United Kingdom car production should be well on the way to 2 million units by the mid to late-1990s, with an increasingly substantial proportion of it going for export.