Iron and Steel Board (Report)

Part of the debate – in the House of Commons at 12:00 am on 27 July 1962.

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Photo of Mr John Peyton Mr John Peyton , Yeovil 12:00, 27 July 1962

If the hon. Gentleman will bide his time, I hope to come to his speech.

The hon. Gentleman went on to express the view—this is a very important point, and I am not challenging what he said—that the problems of our balance of payments would be more readily overcome by securing the most economic level of operation of industry. All right, but what did he mean by that? What is the most economic level of operation? Is it wise economy or good sense to produce what we cannot sell? We have to bear in mind that our main problem stems from our weak balance of payments position. This is what prevailed last July and what made these measures necessary.

If we insist on building up stocks of steel, which is a very expensive use of capital resources, we shall, in fact, be pulling in imports which are in no way requited by exports.