Mr Timothy Eggar: I absolutely agree with my hon. Friend. Back in 1994, the hon. Member for Bolsover said that he wanted renationalisation of the coal industry without compensation and the hon. Member for Livingston (Mr. Cook), speaking from the Opposition Front Bench, said: I would be astonished if our plans to rescue the coal industry after the next election did not involve public ownership."—[Official...
Mr Timothy Eggar: My Department has received, and continues to receive, various representations about the ownership of electricity and water companies.
Mr Timothy Eggar: I always give the comments of my right hon. Friend the Member for Wokingham (Mr. Redwood) the attention that they deserve.
Mr Timothy Eggar: My hon. Friend is absolutely right. It is also fair to point out the significant real fall in electricity prices for domestic and industrial consumers.
Mr Timothy Eggar: Typical customers are benefiting from a reduction in their electricity bills, this year and next, of about £90. That is a clear benefit of privatisation, and there are many others associated with it: improving standards of service in the electricity sector, and doubled investment in the water sector following the massive under-investment under the Labour party in the mid-1970s.
Mr Timothy Eggar: My hon. Friend is absolutely right.
Mr Timothy Eggar: It is £7.1 billion in 1996 prices.
Mr Timothy Eggar: My hon. Friend is absolutely right: the grants are an important part of assistance to the appropriate regions. As my hon. Friend knows, his constituency is in the midlands uplands area, which is eligible for objective 5b assistance and it received a programme allocation of £10 million. Assistance through the regional assistance programmes of the European Union is an important contribution to...
Mr Timothy Eggar: There have been delays in taking decisions about a number of structural funds and much of the responsibility for that lies with Brussels. Government officers and I have been trying to speed up the decision making on those grants. Above all, we must ensure that we get good value for the money that is disbursed. That is why we introduced the regional challenge programme and why the private...
Mr Timothy Eggar: I refer the hon. Member to the answer I gave earlier to the hon. Member for Pendle (Mr. Prentice).
Mr Timothy Eggar: I agree with the hon. Member for East Kilbride (Mr. Ingram), who is all in favour of competition. I detect from the questions of the hon. Members for Edinburgh, Leith (Mr. Chisholm) and for Pendle that they do not entirely agree with the hon. Member for East Kilbride.
Mr Timothy Eggar: I congratulate the right hon. and hon. Members who have attended the debate—greater men or women hath made no greater sacrifice than to attend the debate this evening. I have a little reservation about the judgment of the Labour Front Bench in choosing this topic at this time. I think that the Scots are more loyal to the alternative attractions than the English, and I can understand why....
Mr Timothy Eggar: I am delighted with that rewriting of history. I wish the hon. Gentleman well in his new career as a stock market analyst—I am sure that it will enhance his prospects under new Labour. Safety was a recurring theme in hon. Members' speeches. I make it absolutely clear that there is no way in which the Government or the company will imperil safety. While I was absent from the Chamber, I...
Mr Timothy Eggar: The hon. Gentleman is stating, at least implicitly, that cancer is caused by working in the nuclear industry. There is no evidence that that is so. Whatever other debates we may have about the nuclear industry, it does no one any good to promulgate such a scare story. The hon. Member for Leeds, West referred to statements by my noble Friend Lord Wakeham in November 1989. It is quite true: we...
Mr Timothy Eggar: No, I shall not give way to the hon. Gentleman. He has not been present during the debate except at the very beginning.
Mr Timothy Eggar: I will not give way. The hon. Gentleman did not sit through the debate. I must repeat again that liabilities have followed assets in the proposals for the sale of British Energy. We have made it clear in the past that that will happen, and I repeat quite categorically and unreservedly that liabilities will follow assets and that British Energy is responsible and will remain responsible for...
Mr Timothy Eggar: indicated dissent.
Mr Timothy Eggar: I think that I heard the hon. Gentleman say that Parliament had been misled. I am sure that he did not mean to say that; perhaps he could withdraw that comment.
Mr Timothy Eggar: indicated dissent.
Mr Timothy Eggar: My Department is keeping closely in touch with the Office of Gas Supply about the progress of gas competition in the south-west.
