National Coal Board (Report and Accounts)

Part of the debate – in the House of Commons at 12:00 am on 20 July 1955.

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Photo of Captain Harry Crookshank Captain Harry Crookshank , Gainsborough 12:00, 20 July 1955

It may be one thing for people like that to decide whether or not, in any given case, a loan may be made; it is quite another thing to have a tax imposed by stray inspectors from an outside body. I think that, upon reflection, the right hon. Gentleman will see that there is a world of difference between those two propositions.

May I now pass on to one or two other points made, I was about to say, by the right hon. Gentleman and his hon. Friends. But there was an argument between two of my hon. Friends, one of whom thought that opencast coal mining was disastrous, and the other who was annoyed that there had been any contraction of it. I did not hear other hon. Gentlemen who may have spoken on the subject. The fact of the matter is that last year just over 10 million tons of coal were taken by opencast mining, and since 1942 the figure has gone as high as 128 million tons. The country would have been in grave difficulties without that coal; but that is not to say that, as a principle, it is a very good idea to take over agricultural land for this purpose, and therefore the situation has constantly to be watched.

The right hon. Member for Llanelly referred to the question of manpower and the need for better relations. The right hon. Member for Derby, South alleged that we had failed to deal with this problem. In 1947, the first year of nationalisation, the manpower figure was 711,000. By 1950, it had fallen to 697,000. We did not blame the Opposition for that, because it was realised that in a time of full employment—as the right hon. Gentleman has himself pointed out—it is not easy to keep men, particularly younger men, in this form of occupation. But in 1951–52 there was a sharp rise. There had been a slight recession, but a good deal of propaganda work was done, with the result that in 1952, broadly speaking, there were as many men as were actually needed, though some were not in the right places—or rather, it would have been possible to employ some in Yorkshire, in South Wales and in the West Midlands.

Today, the problem is to try to hold the total force, and, again, to redeploy it where it is most needed. Here I come to the point made by the hon. Lady the hon. Member for Cannock (Miss Lee), who thought more could be done by housing. I regret that I was not able to be in the Chamber when she was speaking, but I was told what she said. The House will recollect that the Coal Board has had authority to build and has completed the building of 20,000 houses. But the point which I think the hon. Lady had in mind was whether local authorities in the areas concerned could do more. We, as a Government, recognise the need for houses for miners in those districts where coal production can be expanded. We shall encourage that provision by dealing sympathetically with applications for extra allocations from local authorities who are willing to build more houses for this purpose. I think that that covers the point about which the hon. Lady asked.

A publicity campaign is now going on in connection with recruitment. The Ministry of Labour is calling the attention of young men and others to the advantages of the mining industry, and the Government and the Coal Board are joining in a publicity campaign themselves. Incidentally, it might interest hon. Members to know—because this touches upon the manpower problem—that when my right hon. Friend was speaking about the oil programme eventually involving a coal saving of 20 million tons, the use of that oil is equivalent to providing the mining industry with about 80,000 more miners. As the oil programme gets under way, therefore, the necessity for the ever-increasing number of miners will become less—and that is quite apart from the arguments which are employed in the Board's Report for 1949.

I do not think I need say much further about prices. My hon. and gallant Friend the Member for South Fylde (Colonel Lancaster) expressed the need for another inquiry, arising out of the Fleck Report, and said that everybody should think again. I am sorry that I do not agree with him; indeed, it is contrary to what has been decided—not that that would be conclusive, in his view—by the Coal Board, because paragraph 10 of the Fleck Report says: … it has been suggested that the present review should be the last of its kind for some time so that the organisation may have a chance to settle down and get on with its job. We agree. The Government also agree. Let the Board get on with that.

During the debate hon. Members have asked why the extra cost has been spread over the whole field. I am surprised at right hon. Gentlemen attacking our good faith in this matter and suggesting that it had something to do with political reasons, because, when the Government of my right hon. Friend the Member for Woodford (Sir W. Churchill) came into office, one of the first things that had to be done was to put up the price of coal by 5s. a ton. That was in December, 1951, and it was hardly a popular thing for an incoming Government to have to do—or, should I say, to find that it had to be done?

The point is that relationships between the Coal Board and my right hon. Friend upon matters of common interest are close and informal, and price increases are not dealt with by formal requests and formal refusals. The question is really misconceived. The new Board took office in February, and thereafter there have been constant consultations upon every kind of matter, including the question of a rise in prices. Of course, on this occasion, it was a question of the largest single increase since the Board was constituted, and, coming just when the new Board had been set up, it is hardly surprising that the most full and detailed consideration had to be given to the question by the new Board and by the Government. I have nothing to confess on behalf of the Government in this matter. The increase came along as a result of these consultations and the Report.