Orders of the Day — Unemployment

Part of the debate – in the House of Commons at 12:00 am on 24 July 1978.

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Photo of Mr Bruce Millan Mr Bruce Millan , Glasgow Craigton 12:00, 24 July 1978

I do not believe that we can do the whole job that has to be done simply by using the 1972 Act. That is why we have established the National Enterprise Board, the Scottish Development Agency and the Welsh Development Agency. The SDA has now invested nearly £20 million in Scottish industry and it is providing jobs for about 8,000 people in 30 companies. The Welsh Development Agency has invested £8½ million and is at the minute supporting 2,000 jobs.

The Conservatives are in favour of castrating those agencies by taking away their industrial investment powers, just as they are on record, I understand, as favouring the abolition of the National Enterprise Board, which in the last year alone invested £200 million in about 20 companies. At the end of last year, employment in the subsidiaries of the NEB was nearly 300,000. It would be an act of industrial vandalism and irresponsibility for the Tories to abolish the NEB.

I am glad to say that, as well as its general contribution to employment, the NEB is making a particular effort in the north-west and the north-east. The work of the NEB, the SDA and the WDA is one of the most hopeful features of the present industrial scene. That work is being done not simply with the older industries which are suffering from the problems of the second industrial revolution but also in the newest industries and technologies.

In the micro-electronics industry, not only is there a Government scheme of assistance for the industry as a whole—£15 million has been allocated as an interim measure to encourage United Kingdom industry to apply the techniques of a wide range of its products—but the NEB is at present establishing under its direct financial guidance and encouragement and with direct NEB money a publicly-owned company to go into the micro-electronic industry which private enterprise has so far signally failed to do anything about.

What has happened to micro-electronics in this country is a significant illustration of the extent to which private industry, left to its own devices, does not meet the new needs of developing technology. The various sector working parties and the assistance that they make available are making a significant contribution to the new as well as the older industries.