Welsh Affairs

Part of the debate – in the House of Commons at 9:03 pm on 4 February 1980.

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Photo of Alan Williams Alan Williams , Swansea West 9:03, 4 February 1980

The hon. Gentleman is fully aware of the situation. My right hon. Friend refused to apply any absolute requirement that the steel industry should break even. He said that it was up to the steel industry to try to break even as early as possible. He did not want to impose a deadline, because he did not think that such a date was attainable. That is a fair statement of the situation.

The Secretary of State for Wales is strong on promises. We have heard about the fourth television channel today. But, as that shows, the right hon. Gentleman is lacking in performance. He said that there was no battle in the Cabinet; he just capitulated.

We have had ballyhoo about an extra £48 million that he has conjured up today for press release purposes. If anyone should doubt whether it has gone out from his press office, I have a copy.

We remember the right hon. Gentleman's grand words about Shotton. Money was going to flow so freely from the Government. What happened? We know that £2 million came from BSC Industry without its even being asked, and virtually all the remainder came from the existing budget of the Welsh Development Agency. Therefore, the Government merely took money from other parts of Wales and channelled it towards Shotton. I do not begrudge Shotton the money. It needed the finance. But the pretence that it is extra money does not bear examination. Therefore, when the Under-Secretary of State replies to the debate, we shall want to know a little more about this £48 million.

The Secretary of State, in the press handout, states; I can now tell the House that, within the reduced public expenditure programme we have been discussing, the Government are planning to make available some £48 million over the next two years for remedial measures of this kind. So they are within the existing programmes, as far as one can gather. We want to know whether that is so. [Interruption.] It is not that we were not listening. The right hon. Gentleman blabs on a lot. We listen as closely as we can, but we are not shorthand experts. That is how the right hon. Gentleman managed to sleight-of-hand his last effort through the House. We want explanations on this one, and I am sure that the Under-Secretary will provide the answer that we seek.

But even with the new cash there will be little new industry because of the 2 per cent. cut in our national output over the next 12 months. That is a 2 per cent. cut from a Government some right hon. Members of which lectured us time and again on the need for growth and on the need for the tax cuts that were to set private enterprise free to invest. Here we are with a 2 per cent. cut in output and at least a 4 per cent. cut in investment.

Already areas such as Bristol, Slough and Swindon are campaigning to grab whatever new industry there may be. In their post today some hon. Members will have received a copy of the Estates Times. Dealing with the Bristol area, it says: It is difficult to believe that Britain is wallowing in the mire of an industrial depression when agents in areas like Avon begin reeling off figures showing last year's progress. Rents were up 60 per cent.…while take up more than doubled.…Yet Avon is getting more than its fair share of imported firms and this trend is likely to continue…Perhaps the most immigrants to Avon are the microchip companies. These are the greyhounds among the firms racing for growth". While we are being starved of new industries, these areas are taking advantage of the fact that reduced incentives debar us from attracting new industry. Even if those areas miss the new industry, Corby will almost certainly get it before we do. Already there are complaints from the Midlands that Corby, because of its assisted area status, is sucking in new industry at such a rate that firms are relocating.

What does that mean in terms of Welsh opportunities for capturing firms that wish to go to assisted areas? Most insiduously, our skilled workers are being wooed by English authorities and English employers. Yet again Wales will have a young generation of workers, its skilled workers stolen, at a time when the number of elderly people in our population is increasing, on the admission of the Government, at the rate of 2 per cent. a year. Able people will have to leave Wales if they want jobs.

A recent education survey showed that Wales came out best in educational development. However, Wales is now to become the educational stud farm for English industry. By contrast—dependent as we are on small firms which are unable to train their own workers—even our skillcentres are threatened with closure.

In rural Mid-Wales, North and South-West Wales the industrial headstone has already been inscribed. It was inscribed by the right hon. Gentleman last July.

For too much of the remainder of Welsh industry, bankrupts' graves are being prepared and the murderers of our Welsh hopes are sitting on the Government Front Bench.