Fuel and Power (Policy)

Part of the debate – in the House of Commons at 12:00 am on 6 February 1959.

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Photo of Mr Norman Pentland Mr Norman Pentland , Chester-le-Street 12:00, 6 February 1959

I beg to second the Motion.

I wish to congratulate my hon. Friend the Member for Houghton-le-Spring (Mr. Blyton) upon his success in the Ballot and on his choice of subject today. I particularly wish to congratulate him upon the way in which he so ably moved this Motion, and, at the same time, emphatically pressed upon the Government in a very forceful manner a great many of the problems that will have to he faced in the coal industry.

I submit at once that this vital problem which we are debating today not only affects the livelihood of the miners alone, but if the answers are not found by the Government to many of the questions which my hon. Friend has put forward this morning, in the long run, thousands of other industrial workers will find their future security in industry jeopardised.

My hon. Friend mentioned shipping, and it is quite true that a number of other industries, either directly or indirectly, depend upon the coal industry for their prosperity. I know that the old pessimists are about, and that the usual red herrings have been dragged out once again to the effect that coal is a dying source of energy in this country, that it is the energy of the past, and that these people point to atomic energy and tell us that oil will always be cheaper than coal. They say that coal should not he burned, and that it is a waste to burn it and so on. I would like to suggest that these arguments cannot stand up to any examination at all.

I think everyone will agree on both sides of this Chamber that this nation is built on coal, and that, when nationalisation came, it was estimated that we had 40,000 million tons of coal still below the ground. I want to impress upon the House the fact that since nationalisation of coal took place 12 years ago, the miners have extracted from our pits 4,500 million tons of coal. I suggest that that is the real basis of our wealth today. I think that everyone will further agree, regardless of the realities or potentialities of atomic energy and so on, that coal will continue to be the real basis of our wealth for many years to come, and, I am quite sure, for the lifetime of everyone here today.

If that is accepted, it is high time, as my hon. Friend said, that this Government paid proper regard to the many problems that now face the coal industry, devised a fuel policy to meet the present situation, which, at the same time, would solve many of the problems that may face us in the future, because of our reliance on imported fuels.

What about the attitude of the miners in the light of the present situation? I refer to this matter because I have a feeling that the attitude of the miners will be mentioned here today. I say quite frankly and assure the House that the miners are understandably confused and just a little cynical about the present situation and how it has arisen. They remember that, not so very long ago, hon. Members opposite were condemning the miners for absenteeism, because they were not producing the coal which they thought they should produce, about their attitude towards bringing foreign workers into the industry and so on.

Further, we found not so very long ago that there were advertisements in practically every newspaper in this country carrying information for the youth of Britain encouraging them to enter the coal mines, and informing them that their future careers would be secure if they chose to adopt a career in mining. Many thousands of them did, as my hon. Friend said, but they were, in the main, from the mining communities. Fathers encouraged their sons to go down the pits, and, while some from outside came in, it was, in the main, from the mining communities that the new entrants to the industry came.

What do they find today? In South Wales, in Scotland and in Northern England, many of these young men, who married and settled down, are now worried about their future, because of having various commitments under hire-purchase contracts which they entered into, and because they now find themselves on the dole. No wonder they are confused. There is one thing, however, on which there is no confusion at all, and it is that the miners realise full well that if, in the present situation, the former coalowners still had control of the pits of Britain, the situation would be a thousand times worse than it is today, and that they would not have the same fair crack of the whip which they have had from the National Coal Board.

I know that there are many factors responsible for bringing about the present situation in the coal industry, but the Government must take full responsibility for the part which they have played. It is no good blaming the Coal Board. There are many who are now coming into the open against the Coal Board, people who are opposed to nationalisation and who always have been. They blame the Coal Board for the actions it has taken and for the money which has been spent on long-term investment under the programme which the Board has set out to fulfil.

The truth of the matter is that the Coal Board has planned and was told to plan to meet an expanding economy in which industrial production would increase 3 to 4 per cent. each year. The Leader of the House based his estimate on that assumption when he said that the standard of living of this country would be doubled in 25 years. The only thing he forgot was that he was a member of the Tory Party and that the Government to which he belonged were putting into effect policies which were in direct contradiction to that.

What has happened has been recounted many times. Instead of expanding the economy, the Government have deliberately set about stagnating it. The aim has been not just to prevent production from going up, but actually to drive it down. In that respect the Government have succeeded very well.

Industrial production today is 2 to 3 per cent. down on a year ago. Steel production is running at over 17 per cent. less than a year ago and the situation is such that less coal is needed. The recent figures of the Ministry of Power show the picture very clearly. Taken at October last year, they show that the steel industry used 1 million tons less than in the same period of the previous year; coke ovens—and it is well known that the products of coke ovens are widely used in steel making—used 2 million tons less; the railways used ¾million tons less—no doubt the introduction of diesel trains affected that fall, but there was a falling off of freights due to reduced production; electricity was down slightly, and other industries used a total of 2½million tons less. No one should be under the misapprehension that the grave situation in the British coalfields is not a political matter. It certainly is and the Government have a great responsibility for bringing about that situation through their policies.

I turn now to another aspect which puzzles me. I said earlier that the miners were confused about the situation, but there is also confusion among those who are responsible for fuel policy, the Minister of Power himself and the Paymaster-General. They have been making haphazard guesses about the future part of coal in our economy. For example, in a debate on nuclear power and oil supplies on 30th April, 1957, the Paymaster-General said: I should like to try to produce a picture of the development we may see in the course of, say, the next eight or ten years, I think that 1965 is a convenient date, because the investment plans of the National Coal Board run to 1965 and the recently announced nuclear electricity programme also runs to the end of 1965.The best estimate we can make is that total inland demand for fuel, which, in 1955, was about 250 million tons of coal and its equivalents, should rise by 1965 to about 300 million tons. That is an increase over the ten years from 250 million to 300 million tons of coal and its equivalents."—[OFFICIAL REPORT, 30th April 1957; Vol. 569, c. 36–7.] The Paymaster-General's estimates at that time were based on an increasing industrial production. That has not taken place. I am sorry that the right hon. Gentleman is not in his place, because he would have been bound to agree that his estimates of the growth of industrial production and his related estimates of rising energy requirements have all been adversely affected by the fact that industrial production has been stagnant since 1955, largely as a result of Government policy.

To come more closely up to date, winding up a debate on fuel and power policy in another place less than three weeks ago, the Minister of Power said: The Government are fully alive to the social and human problems, and to the other adverse factors resulting from unemployment among coal miners. They also realise—and I would ask your Lordships to be good enough to bear this in mind—that if the coal industry's manpower fell beyond what was necessary to produce the annual coal supply needed when industrial production resumes its upward trend, we could again face embarrassing fuel shortages of the same order that arose in the early post-war years. I should like to stress the point that the present state of industrial production is a temporary phase, and that we can look forward to the early resumption of an upward trend, with the increasing demands for fuel supplies, particularly coal, which would accompany it."—[OFFICIAL REPORT, House of Lords, 21st January 1959; Vol. 213, c. 691–2.] Here is another guess, another prophecy, another estimate of our energy requirements made less than three weeks ago. That comes from the Minister himself and we must sincerely hope that he is right.

Let us assume that the Minister is able to persuade the Government to change their economic policy—and without being able to do so, his words will not come true. What will the Government do about the fears of an insufficient labour force in the pits if industrial production assumes its upward trend? From where will they get the miners? Do they think that we are still living in the days when the supply of miners could be turned on and off like a tap? I can assure them that that is not the position today.

Many miners now unemployed will never again go down the pits, and neither will they encourage their sons to do so. The National Union of Mineworkers has emphasised that time and time again. Do the Government take into consideration the serious wastage of manpower in the industry which occurs every year? It should be appreciated that the wastage of miners is about 60,000 every year. Some die, some are killed, some are seriously injured and unable to work again, some contract an industrial disease, some merely grow old and retire, but for one reason or another, 60,000 miners a year leave the pits.

Are the Government sure, in view of the Minister's statement, that they have done the best thing in the interests of the nation's economy in allowing the National Coal Board to be forced into a position where for economic reasons it has had to close down 36 pits? I know that in any circumstances some of these pits would probably have had to close, but I wonder if the Government are happy that they have done the right thing in forcing the Coal Board into the position of having to close down pits, and whether they are satisfied that, because of economic reasons, the Board might once again this year be forced into closing down more pits.

I ask the Government what they are going to do about it. How are they to assist the Coal Board to overcome its problems? They cannot have it both ways. On the one hand, the Minister of Power says that he is worried about an insufficient labour force if industrial production resumes an upward trend and, on the other, we are creating the possibility of a situation arising where the labour force in the pits will gradually fall until we have to face a serious coal fuel shortage. The Government would be well advised to give serious study to this problem, on the lines suggested by my hon. Friend, in view of the fact that the country might find itself facing a very embarrassing and costly fuel shortage in the near future because we have not sufficient miners working in our pits.

These are some of the things which the Government should be concerned about. As for the broader aspects of fuel policy, I hope that the Government have accepted what my hon. Friend has proposed, and will agree to give it every consideration. In an admirable speech my hon. Friend covered all the technical aspects that he would like to see applied in a national fuel policy. I would like to see closer co-ordination between all our fuel producing industries. I also believe that the time has now arrived when it is imperative for the Government to provide more extensive research into alternative uses of coal. A greater emphasis should be placed upon the extraction of chemicals, and we should be looking to the potentialities of plastics and all the other by-products. This could be linked up with the coal industry as part of a national fuel policy, to maximise the use of our coal resources.

These are some of the things we ask to be done. I can assure the Parliamentary Secretary that only a forthright statement from him upon a national fuel policy—a statement telling us what the Government mean to do, and showing that they are setting out to plan for such a policy—will alleviate the anxiety and fears which exist in the mining communities today. If the country is to return to its former position as one of the foremost industrial powers it is of the utmost importance that that should be done at once.