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Address in Reply to Her Majesty's Most Gracious Speech

My Lords, I am glad to follow the noble Lord, Lord Kimball. I wish the Minister who opened the debate well in her new post and thank her for her previous courtesies. I also acknowledge the Opposition Front Bench speeches, which were very well informed. The National Assembly for Wales is barely six years old, which in the history of Wales is but the blink of an eye, considering its continuously unfolding history of more than a millennium and a half. In that context, the Assembly has done well. It is so young, yet the transference of power from the Westminster village to the Cardiff Bay seat of government has been technically successful—an achievement still underrated and unappreciated overall. The Government should never forget the fundamental importance of the manufacturing industry to Wales and indeed to any regional economy. My theme is employment and my request is for a reconsideration of the basic value of manufacturing to Wales and Britain. How much do the Government value manufacturing? Not enough, perhaps. "Added value" is the establishment's cry. Yes, Wales has modernised and adapted herself to rapidly changing world and British conditions. The Welsh Development Agency, for example, is successful and world-famous. There has been a renaissance in training; road building continues apace; Wales is successfully marketing its lovely landscape and historic buildings; and old industries are reinventing themselves, as at Shotton steelworks, where new products and processes hold the line for the remaining workforce. Unemployment has plummeted, and great new industrial estates have grown up on derelict sites to provide many new jobs. The Government's measures are working but Wales still depends on manufacturing and would falter without it. We need more of it, not less. How important is manufacturing in the Government's strategic economic policies? The gracious Speech did not illuminate on that subject. But the shrunken steel industry and the all but disappeared coal industry have put a premium on Wales's remaining manufacturing. The burgeoning aerospace industry in Wales illustrates that. In south Wales, the United States General Electric Company employs a very large skilled workforce. In north-east Wales, Airbus UK, at Broughton, has a workforce of nearly 7,000 skilled employees. Those two giant companies sustain other associated jobs throughout the Principality. I ask the Government to acknowledge the supreme importance of the aerospace industry to Wales's economy. I declare an interest as an unpaid member of the industrial advisory board concerning the technology centre in the north west. When, recently, in Toulouse, the colossal Airbus A380 took flight for the first time, all of Europe was proud. It was a triumph of engineering on a scale infrequent in the history of our country. In north-east Wales, at Broughton, Flintshire, the reaction to the A380's inaugural test flight was joyous, to put it bluntly, for the monster's wings were made by that wonderful workforce. Morale is now sky high and Wales can only benefit from the plant's excellence. It was a moment of special pride for me, having had the honour to be the Member of Parliament for the area and of the workforce for 31 years, until 2001. I was born and still live but a mile or so from the runway, and many members of the workforce are my longstanding friends. Typically, that workforce is highly skilled, trained, motivated and successful. They are world-beaters and are well led by their managers and conveners. It is manufacturing at its very best. The aerospace industry has proved itself in the region, and Wales has consequently become more prosperous. A new project is under way: a new passenger aircraft by Airbus UK is being developed. Will the Government give repayable launch investment for that development? I hasten to say that repayable launch investment provision to Airbus would be an income generator for the British taxpayer. For example, Her Majesty's Government supplied £250 million repayable launch investment towards the Airbus 320 programme, and repayments now total more than £500 million. The repayments grow with each single-aisle aircraft delivered. The new aircraft will entail carbon-fibre composite wings, for lower weight and more efficiency in travel. I want to see the wings made in north-east Wales. If the Government advanced repayable launch investment moneys, we would see, given our good previous track record, an estimated 10,800 direct new jobs and many more consequential jobs across Britain. Other European countries also have a capacity in the use of composites in wing production. It will be the future for the industry. But I fear that, without British Government commitment, A350 wings will be produced elsewhere on the Continent, perhaps in Hamburg, in Germany. That should be avoided. Do not let us lose this country's leadership position in this technology and this industry. It is time for decisions. I suggest that we boost the existing workforce of 12,000 in Wales and 40,000 across Britain and acknowledge the 500 apprentices at Airbus sites now, the 6,000 apprenticeships over the past three decades, the 100 graduates recruited annually and the massive contribution to Britain's and Wales's research and development. The aerospace industry makes a huge contribution to Britain's overseas earnings—billions of pounds annually. I suggest that the Government announce their backing at the Paris Air Show next month. Let us remember that aerospace is Britain's last great industry, its last great industrial employer and its last great repository of skills and training. Will our successful Government invest anew in success and acknowledge the still supreme importance of manufacturing to the people of Britain and Wales?