Finance (No. 2) Bill

Part of the debate – in the House of Commons at 9:07 pm on 8 May 1980.

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We shall wish to debate the provisions creating the enterprise zones in detail in Committee. Clause 68 and the Government's proposals for enterprise zones reflect their extraordinarily muddled thinking about the economy. The Government create a slump by cutting public expenditure by their excessive, over-tight monetary policies. They damage the prospects for investment by high interest rates, and then they set aside a few miserable acres—many of them derelict acres and many in areas which have been made derelict partly by the Government's own economic policies. Then they hope and believe that somehow jobs can be created in those areas, that factories can be built and that investment will take place, against a background of slump and depression. That shows how extraordinarily simple-minded the Government are in their economic policies.