Planning

The Linwood factory being built

In this useful source the government minister responsible for Scottish affairs in the early 1960s explains why the government was keen to encourage a car company to open a factory in Scotland. Car manufacturers and other companies involved in the new industries preferred to open new factories in the London area, or the English Midlands. The government looked for a good site for a car factory in Scotland. Building cars could replace the jobs that were being lost in the old industries such as shipbuilding and coal mining which were in decline. As a location for a car factory Linwood had one or two obvious advantages. One advantage was that Linwood was very close to Glasgow with its airport, rail links and docks. A new motorway link to England was planned but was not completed by the time the plant closed.

BBC Radio 1981 'The Linwood story'

Secretary of State for Scotland during Harold McMillan's Conservative government, Jack MacLay (Viscount Muirshiel)

The Linwood factory being built

"We were running twice the United Kingdom rate of unemployment ...the Midlands were as low as one percent at that time. And also the biggest problem we had in Scotland was the declining industries, the old heavy industries, which in two World Wars had been artificially not only maintained but expanded. And as we saw them declining and knew they must go further down, as coal pits worked out and things happened round that. We must get new industry in, preferably of a lighter type and modern industry. The IDC (The industrial development certificate) came into existence I can't remember when, and this was being used pretty hard to make it more difficult for firms, not of any kind, but of certain types of industry to go where they might well have preferred, perhaps the south east of England or the Midlands."