Part of the debate – in the House of Commons am 12:00 am ar 4 Tachwedd 1965.
None of these 13 is built as yet. These are 13 factories we plan to build. I was indicating that already, before it is built, the firm which is coming to Blaenau Ffestiniog wants the factory increased fivefold, which is something we all welcome. A firm has already indicated its willingness to take over the factory at Pontardulais, of which we have not yet laid a brick.
There were two other developments this year of very great importance in two widely separated areas of Wales, both of which are bases for a wide hinterland of development and of population and which are in two basic industries around which in the future there can be immediate growth. There is, first, Ford's at Swansea. There is, secondly, announced only last week, Firestone at Wrexham in the heart of the North Wales coalfield. This is a £6 million factory with a 10-year development scheme. This will provide employment for 1,500.
I must make a brief reference to a new development in Wales. One of our desires has been to diversify as much as possible the pattern of employment in Wales. What we want is a wide diversification, a multi-pattern. I am very glad to be able to report to the House that in the course of this year we have secured two Government offices for South Wales—a passport office at Newport, to be established in 1967 with a staff of 90, and a land registry office to be established at Swansea in 1968 with a staff of 500. I believe that this marks another noteworthy advance in Wales. In addition to the establishment of a wide variety of industries, we want the kind of industries which bring their own staff with them. The very fact that they are there provides new opportunities of employment for our young people who will come along in the years ahead. They are a very great boon.
My right hon. Friend the President of the Board of Trade has recently scheduled virtually the whole of the South Wales coalfield and the coastal towns in South Wales under the Local Employment Act. I mention both the coalfield and the coastal towns, because here we meet two problems—the changes that may take place in the coal industry, and indeed in other industries, and the changes which may take place in the level of employment in the steel industry. I must tell the House that when the Local Employment Act was before us I thought that it was the wrong concept. I was very concerned because it pinpointed a local employment exchange and I thought that that would have a circumscribing effect. The trading estate built by public money at Treforest, for example, was outside the area. As my right hon. Friend knows, the Government are giving consideration to future legislation of this type. The whole of the South Wales coalfield is now covered. This area is being taken as a whole, coastal towns and valleys.
I speak as a son of the valleys. I have their future at heart. Do not let us dissociate the valleys from the towns. Here I must be very careful and not express too much indignation, lest I cause a storm. Every Welshman has a village, a valley and a town. I believe that the concept of linking the valleys with the towns—here I believe I speak for all my compatriots—is vitally important in more than one way. Therefore, I rejoice in this.
I turn to Mid-Wales. Earlier this year we had a discussion in the Welsh Grand Committee about Mid-Wales and its problem of depopulation. I announced what was the Government policy then, that we would seek, in conjunction with the Mid-Wales Industrial Association, through the medium of the Development Commission—this latter body having come to us through a Budget many years ago of the father of my hon. Friend the Member for Carmarthen (Lady Megan Lloyd George)—to double the number of jobs which the Development Commission had planned for the Mid-Wales Industrial Association to provide in Mid-Wales. It had aimed to provide 100 new jobs a year. This does not seem a lot, but in an area like this when village communities are being rebuilt it means a great deal. One hundred new jobs a year can mean saving a village in an area which has been losing its population at the rate of a village per year. We decided that we would seek to double that and provide 200 new jobs. Two hundred new jobs can give livelihood to a community of 500. If this can be done every year—livelihood for a community of 500—Mid-Wales in 20 years' time will have changed a great deal. Depopulation has been going on for much longer than 20 years.
I will now give a factual account of what we have done in Mid-Wales in the last year. First, two new advance fac- tories are to be built—one at Llandrindod and one at Aberystwyth—two splendid communities. Three extensions of existing factories have been authorised at Machynlleth, Brecon and Knighton. These five developments together will provide about 320 jobs.
There are other projects. At Welsh-pool an advance factory is let to a firm manufacturing plastic goods. At Welsh-pool, too, a new factory will be taken over by another firm. Two firms are taking over existing premises at Llandrindod and Llandeilo. Two engineering firms will build small factories at Rhayader and Llanidloes. Other new firms at Aberystwyth and Cardigan are already in production. In Newtown there will be an expansion by a firm known as B.R.D. Ltd. Then there is Blaenau Ffestiniog.
Let me add this up. If our hopes for new jobs come to fruition, in due time—in two or three years, perhaps more—we shall have provided 1,200 new jobs in Mid-Wales. We are therefore making a real attack upon one of the great evils of our countryside—depopulation—particularly in Mid-Wales, and I am glad to report this to the House.