MP demands traini levy reform
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• Radical reform of the road transport training levy scheme which, in its present form, he claims, had "lost the trust of the industry", was demanded in the Commons yesterday by Mr Marcus Fox, Conservative MP for Shipley.
The debate, on a motion to annul the Industrial Training Levy (Road Transport) Order 1970, took place after CM went to press, but Mr Fox earlier outlined the general case for abolition which he intended to put to the House.
Chairman of the Conservative backbench Transport Committee, Mr Fox has a particular interest in transport matters which stems from his former financial interest in a private coach firm.
He told CM that the financial incompetence of the board which is £6m "in the red" proved that something drastic must be done.
"Reorganization must take place because the Board has become remote from the people it was set up to serve," he said. "This is due to the diverse nature of the industries concerned. The training needs of one section are not necessarily those of another, yet all are beine levied at the same rate, which is a source of irritation."
Mr Fox believes that decentralization is the answer with the establishment of three sub-divisions of the Board to cover the road haulage industry; the retail motor industry including the agricultural machinery trade; and the passenger road transport.
In his view the present Board should continue, but in a reduced capacity, to keep a watching eye on the sub-divisions but in a purely advisory capacity.
"Only by these means shall we restore confidence to the transport industry and its methods of training," he said. "Training is not an end in itself but a means to an end.
"Accepting that it was necessary to set up training boards, do we go on perpetuating them for their own sake, or do we decide whether an industry has reached the point where responsibility can be handed back to it, subject to the Government being convinced that training will be carried out properly?
"Finding the answer is, I am convinced, the proper objective of the view of training boards which, as announced in the Queen's speech, the Government is now undertaking."