Mr Major’s Written Parliamentary Answer on Manufacturing Investment – 20 July 1989

Below is the text of Mr Major’s written Parliamentary Answer on Manufacturing Investment on 20th July 1989.

Mr. Allen To ask the Chancellor of the Duchy of Lancaster what was the amount of net manufacturing investment in new buildings, machinery and plant in the period 1980 to 1988; and what was the comparable figure for 1971 to 1979.

Mr. Major I have been asked to reply.

The latest estimates of net domestic fixed capital formation by manufactured industry for 1977–87 appear in the 1988 edition of the Central Statistical Office publication “United Kingdom National Accounts”, table 13.5. Estimates for earlier years may be obtained from the CSO Databank, a collection of macroeconomic time series in computer readable form to which the House of Commons Library has direct access. Estimates for 1988 are not yet available. Separate estimates of net investment in new buildings and works, and plant and machinery are not of publishable quality.

The published figures do not include capital goods leased from financial sector lessors. Furthermore, there are difficulties in measuring net domestic fixed capital formation since the national accounts estimates of the economic lives of fixed assets, used to estimate capital consumption, are very broad brush.