asked the President of the Board of Trade what further action he proposes to take to arrest the growth of unemployment in Development Areas and other areas needing new employment.

My hon. Friend the Parliamentary Secretary to the Board of Trade has continued to examine in detail what special help can usefully be given to particular areas. He announced last Friday the further action which we are now taking. A little time is required for this extended help to become known and to be made use of by industry, but I am confident that definite results will follow.

Does not the President of the Board of Trade agree that the results of the Bill introduced by the Government last summer have been fully as disappointing as we predicted? Can he at least assure us now that the Government are willing to build Government-financed factories in any part of a Development Area when individual firms ask for them?

As was announced on Friday, we have just agreed to resume factory building in the North-East Lancashire Development Area, and a similar announcement is being made today in respect of North Lanarkshire. Where conditions justify it, we are prepared to build a tailor-made factory for anyone who wants one.

Is not the right hon. Gentleman prepared to say here and now that the Government will build a Government-financed and tailor-made factory—not an advance factory—in any part of a Development Area? If not, the Government are not tackling this problem seriously.

I understand the right hon. Gentleman's motive, but he is wrong in his advice, because the more narrowly we can concentrate this offer of help in particular places where unemployment is really high the greater chance we have of getting factories there.