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Mr. Grylls : Is my right hon. Friend aware of the importance of the news that he has given the House this afternoon, that motor cars made in Great Britain by Japanese-owned firms will be freely allowed on to the continent? Will he make sure that that actually happens? Until those motor cars are seen to flow out of the factories in Britain and on to the continent, there will still be doubt about whether the free market of 1992 will really arrive.
Mr. Ridley : I can only give my hon. Friend the assurance that I am confident that that result will prevail. Cars are already flowing out of at least one factory, in north-east England, and on to the continent without let or hindrance.
As I said, that issue was raised a second time in discussions, and I am confident that it has been suitably
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resolved. I cannot claim that the way in which the Community is moving will result in a totally free market for cars after 1992, but it will for British-made cars.Post Office
8. Miss Hoey : To ask the Secretary of State for Trade and Industry when he last met the chairman of the Post Office to discuss the state of industrial relations.
Mr. Forth : Industrial relations are a matter for the Post Office, its employees, and their trade unions.
Miss Hoey : In view of the difficulty that the Post Office has both in recruiting and retaining postal workers, will the Minister meet the chairman of the Post Office urgently and make sure that the increased postal charges that have recently been announced are used not to prop up the profits of the Post Office but to improve the services to people--and particularly to improve the working conditions and pay of the many thousands of loyal postal workers in this country?
Mr. Forth : The hon. Lady will be delighted to know that my right hon. Friend the Secretary of State and I meet the chairman of the Post Office and his colleagues regularly to keep in touch with the efforts that the Post Office is making to do precisely what she asks--to maintain a consistent investment policy and ensure that pay rewards to employees are sufficient to attract and retain employees of a suitable quality to enable the Post Office to provide an acceptable level of service to the people of Britain. The Post Office can demonstrate considerable success in this matter, and I am sure that the hon. Lady will join me in wishing it well in the continuation of that programme.
Mr. Gow : As industrial relations in the privatised industries have been much better than those in the nationalised industries, will my hon. Friend take this opportunity to reaffirm that the Government are still considering the possibility of introducing a measure of privatisation and competition into the collection and delivery of letters?
Mr. Forth: My hon. Friend knows that the Department is constantly reviewing ways in which improvements can be brought about in organisations such as the Post Office. That is a continuing process. But in the short term, we must look to the management and employees of the Post Office to sustain improvements in their quality of service so that requests such as that made by my hon. Friend will be muted and can continue to be put in their place.
Mr. Ewing : Can the Minister confirm that when he was a Back Bencher he supported privatisation of the royal mail, whereas now that he is Minister responsible for the Post Office, he has changed his mind and there is now no possibility--we are all grateful for this--of the privatisation of the royal mail?
Mr. Forth : I shall share a secret with the hon. Gentleman : remarkable things happen when one is translated from the Back Benches to the Dispatch Box and if, from time to time, the hon. Gentleman has noticed the tiniest change in my demeanour, he should not be too surprised.
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Mr. John Marshall : Is my hon. Friend aware that no postal collections are taking place in my constituency today? He has frequently said that the Post office monopoly is a privilege, not a right. Does he accept that many Conservative Members believe that that privilege should be taken away?Mr. Forth : I am aware of the difficulties in my hon. Friend's constituency. I repeat what I said at the beginning : neither my right hon. Friend the Secretary of State nor I have--or will have--any responsibility for industrial relations. I must emphasise, however, that every time unofficial action is taken that prejudices the level of service given by the Post Office, it weakens the argument that most Opposition Members will wish to advance in favour of maintaining the present status of the Post Office. My hon. Friend knows that well. His argument, which he has pursued consistently, and which he will be pursuing again in an Adjournment debate on Monday, is strengthened every time unofficial industrial action reduces the level of service given by the Post Office.
Juno Project
11. Mr. Fearn : To ask the Secretary of State for Trade and Industry what representations he has received concerning the future funding of the Juno project ; and if he will make a statement.
Mr. Douglas Hogg : The organisers of the Juno project have requested Government funding. Juno was conceived as a private sector venture to put a British astronaut into spece on the basis of commercial and media sponsorship. I could not justify diverting resources from the Government's own space programme which has quite different goals, notably Earth observation and telecommunications.
Mr. Fearn : Does the Minister agree that the Juno project involves more than simply putting a woman from the Mars bars company or a service man from the British Army into space? Is he aware that microgravity experiments were to be conducted and that they would have had a bearing on both AIDS and arthritis? Would not the resultant savings to the health service amount to more than the £12 million for the want of which the project is in jeopardy?
Mr. Hogg : I doubt the hon. Gentleman's conclusion. What I am certain about is that the Government are right to target our spending programme as we are targeting it at present--to use space for specific useful purposes. I do not think that Juno is a proper candidate for public money in that context.
Mr. Batiste : Does my hon. and learned Friend agree that research in space is a vital ingredient of the high-tech industries of the future, where many important technologies will be field tested? As the cost of those experiments is so high, it is vital that Government funds are not diverted from matters that we deem to be of strategic importance to the United Kingdom.
Mr. Hogg : My hon. Friend is entirely right. The Juno mission is not of strategic importance to the United Kingdom. What are of strategic importance are the polar platform and the Earth observation programme, to which we are subscribing, and the latest European Space Agency
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telecommunications satellite programme, to which we are also subscribing. We are putting our money where it matters.Regional Assistance
12. Mr. Martlew : To ask the Secretary of State for Trade and Industry what was the level of regional development grants and regional selective assistance in (a) 1978-79 and (b) the last financial year.
Mr. Douglas Hogg : In 1978-79, expenditure in Great Britain on regional development grants and regional selective assistance was £416.9 million and £104.5 million respectively, while in 1989-90 expenditure was £203.9 million and £197.8 million respectively at current prices.
Mr. Martlew : In the northern region, development grants have been cut in real terms by £118 million a year and selective assistance has been cut by 75 per cent. As unemployment in the north-west is still much higher than 1979, what justification can the Government give for that? With unemployment rising and industry being hit by high interest rates and inflation, will the Minister reconsider putting more money into the north- west to stimulate investment?
Mr. Hogg : This is an interesting question because it points to two things : first, a lack of knowledge and, secondly, a change in the Labour party programme, as it is disclosed. The hon. Gentleman spoke of rising employment. In his constituency, which is an unassisted area, between March 1989 and March 1990 unemployment fell by 21.4 per cent.
Mr. Nigel Griffiths : What about 1979?
Mr. Hogg : I said 1989 to 1990. In the adjoining constituency of Workington, which is an assisted area, between March 1989 and March 1990 unemployment fell by 28.3 per cent., so the policy is working. The hon. Gentleman has disclosed a new spending programme for the Labour party. If he looks at page 16 of his party's policy document he will find that it mentions only a reshaping of regional grants. He wants to bring back regional development grants, but that would cost £1 billion. I do not suppose that that has been provided for in the spending plans.
Mr. Yeo : Does my hon. and learned Friend agree that if anyone were to advocate an increase in development grants and selective assistance, to be paid for exclusively by extra taxes on one person in 15, the burden placed on those taxpayers would be crippling and the disincentive effects and the likely increase in unemployment would be substantial?
Mr. Hogg : I entirely agree. The programme disclosed in the Labour party document is only a small part of its spending programmes. The hon. Member for Carlisle (Mr. Martlew) has made it quite plain that he wants to bring back regional development grants, but it would cost £1 billion to reinstate them to 1978-79 figures. Is that included in the bill of £50 billion, which independent experts have assessed as the cost of the Labour party programme?
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Mr. Campbell-Savours : The Minister looked quite pathetic in answering my hon. Friend the Member for Carlisle (Mr. Martlew). He completely misrepresented what my hon. Friend said.What discussions are going on between the Department of Trade and Industry and the Department of the Environment about West Cumbria's application for objective 2 assistance? Does he realise that we desperately need that assistance in West Cumbria because we face as many as 3,000 or 4,000 redundancies following the run down of the Sellafield thermal oxide reprocessing plant construction project? We need the money and that help in West Cumbria. What will the Minister do?
Mr. Hogg : That is an extraordinary question. I have had the pleasure of telling the House that unemployment in the hon. Gentleman's constituency fell by 28.3 per cent. between March 1989 and March 1990. For him to describe me as "pathetic" when I am giving good news represents a curious reversal of values.
Mr. Sumberg : Instead of listening to the dismal Jimmies opposite, will my hon. and learned Friend pay a visit to the north-west of England, where he will see a revival of economic activity, a reversal of the north- south divide and a reduction in unemployment? The only threat to all that would be the election of the Labour party to government.
Mr. Hogg : My hon. Friend is manifestly right. If a Government try to introduce a spending programme that will cost £50
billion--according to independent assessments--it will lead to rampant inflation and massive taxation. However, that is the policy of the Labour party, and we shall remind the electorate of that fact until they are fed up with it.
Mr. Caborn : In future, will the Minister obtain his briefings from the Department of Trade and Industry, and not from the right hon. Member for Mole Valley (Mr. Baker)? If he did, we might hear a little more sense. Does he agree that since the last Labour Government there have been cuts in regional grant amounting to £660 million a year? Such cuts lead to headlines such as
"British cities struggle in prosperity league."
The Government have excelled even themselves by relegating 15 of our great cities to the bottom of the European league : we now have the worst record in the European Community.
Rather than attacking the Labour party's policy, the Minister should read the Audit Commission's report on the Government's performance in dispensing aid. The report calls it
"a patchwork quilt of complexity which cannot be understood either by business or local authorities."
Will the Minister arrange for a debate on the report?
Mr. Hogg : I know that the Labour party is upset about the way in which the public are beginning to realise what is in its programme. Let me tell the House-- [Interruption.]
Mr. Foulkes : On a point of order, Mr. Speaker. The Order Paper refers to "Questions" to the Secretary of State : that means that Ministers must answer questions. This little arrogant shit has not answered a single question.
Mr. Speaker : Order. The hon. Gentleman must withdraw that word immediately, and must not repeat it.
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Mr. Foulkes : Which word do you want me to withdraw, Mr. Speaker-- little, arrogant or shit?
Mr. Speaker : The hon. Gentleman knows which word : the last.
Mr. Foulkes : I withdraw the last word.
Mr. Hogg : All this whingeing and whining from Opposition Members is amusing and pathetic. We are now costing the Labour party's programme. Let me add that it was not my right hon. Friend the Member for Mole Valley (Mr. Baker) who attached a bill of £50 billion, but the independent experts Midland Montagu Research.
West Germany
13. Mr. Jack Thompson : To ask the Secretary of State for Trade and Industry what is the current balance of trade in manufactured goods with West Germany.
Mr. Ridley : In the four months ended April 1990 the United Kingdom trade deficit in manufactured goods with West Germany was £3.1 billion.
Mr. Thompson : You will have noted, Mr. Speaker, the reference by Ministers to the Labour party's policy document. At least we have a policy for trade and industry. The Secretary of State's figure of £3.1 billion for the first four months of this year suggests that the Government will match, if not exceed, last year's deficit of £9.6 billion, which was part of a deficit of £14.5 billion with EEC countries. Has the Secretary of State learnt any lessons from the West German Government's attitude to industry? It supports industry with railway systems, infrastructure and support for training. There are significant lessons to be learnt from our European neighbours about trade and industry, but has the Secretary of State learnt any yet?
Mr. Ridley : I have learnt one lesson : to impose a further burden on British industry of 0.5 per cent. payroll tax on its total labour costs, yielding £1 billion, would be crippling to its competitiveness and would make the deficit with West Germany worse. That is the policy contained in the Labour party's document, to which the hon. Gentleman referred. Will he now formally denounce his Front Bench for suggesting imposing penalties on our industry which would make our trade deficit worse? Will he admit that it is time that the Labour party thought again?
Mr. Roger King : Does my right hon. Friend agree that the way to beat countries such as Germany is to produce finer and better quality goods? Will he join me in congratulating Tom Walkinshaw Racing and Jaguar Cars on their magnificent Le Mans victory, when they came first and second, beating a West German Porsche well and truly into third place?
Mr. Ridley : I agree with my hon. Friend that the way to improve our trade performance is to improve quality and our competitiveness so that we can sell in every market of the world. Of course, I join my hon. Friend in congratulating those who won that victory. It is a great British success which I want to see translated into a dividend in terms of sales around the world.
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