Orders of the Day — Depressed Areas (Development and Improvement) Bill.

Part of the debate – in the House of Commons at on 3 December 1934.

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Dr. McLEAN:

I wish to direct attention to the Amendment which was moved by the hon. Member for Chester-le-Street (Mr. Lawson). It regrets: The failure of His Majesty's Government to recognise the urgent necessity for a national system of economic planning. A national system of economic planning presumes in the aggregate a national development plan as the objective. One might refer to the structure of such a plan. The foundation is the market to which both our industrial and agricultural production must be related. On this foundation the development of the country ought to be planned. It includes the communications, the public services, and the planning of land for the necessities of trade development. This is the structure of any national plan, and I submit that an examination of the legislation and the measures of the Government shows that a definite approach has been made towards such a plan. For example, we have markets at home, in the Colonial Empire, the Dominions and foreign countries assured by legislation and trade arrangements. Agricultural production is being related to these markets by the Marketing Acts and the relative Orders. The general relation of industrial production to markets is being assisted by the Government to some extent in shipping, coal, cotton and steel. In order to meet the future needs of trade development we have to consider the development of communications, and these are being assisted by the Road and Rail Traffic Act and other Acts and Measures. The development of public services is being assisted by the Electricity Acts, the Water Supply Acts and the Housing Acts. The planning of land to meet these developments is assisted by the Town and Country Planning Act. Also we must not forget the Board of Trade Annual Surveys of Industrial Development which indicate very clearly how industry is moving, and on that basis you can plan the development of your land. This completes the whole structure of the national development plan.

I have referred to markets for our goods in the Colonial Empire. Here again there has been large-scale economic planning by the Secretary of State for the Colonies. Production is being related to the assured markets, and on this foundation the development in each colony is being carried out. Therefore, a definite approach has been made towards a Colonial Empire development plan. Large-scale economic planning has also been carried out with the Dominions and with foreign countries, and this wide economic planning is the necessary basis for the national planning which the Government are carrying out. It shows some misunderstanding of the problem and of the economic situation to suggest that nothing is being done.

I turn to another point in the Amendment which states that no such measures provide for any substantial increase in employment, and to show that that is not the case I would refer to my own constituency, which depends very largely upon machinery, engines, cranes and structural steel work supplied to the Colonies in connection with their primary products. In the past 18 months there has been a reduction of 24 per cent. in unemployment due to new employment as a result of the preferences and trade arrangements with the Colonies. The effect of all this economic planning has been to promote the development of the Colonies and to raise the standard of life there, and at the same time to provide an expanding market for our manufactures. The fall in unemployment in my constituency, when plotted in the form of a diagram, shows a curve in parabolic form. There is a rapid fall in the figures due to the rush of orders owing to the new trade arrangements, which gradually slows down as the orders become satisfied, but the diagram shows that the fall is likely to be continuous. There is reason to believe that a similar examination of many constituencies will show similar falls in the unemployment figures entirely due to the economic planning of the Government. I submit, therefore, that the Opposition Amendment is without any substance and should be rejected.