§ 3. Mr. Blakerasked the Secretary of State for Economic Affairs whether he will initiate an investigation into the effect of the investment grant differential and the Regional Employment Premium in creating employment in the Northern, Scottish and Welsh development areas.
§ Mr. ShoreA close watch is kept on the impact of all regional measures, although several of them, including those mentioned in the Question, have been in operation for a comparatively short time.
§ Mr. BlakerSince unemployment in the northern region is 73 per cent. higher, in Wales 37 per cent. higher and in Scotland 18 per cent. higher than in the autumn of 1965 when the National Plan was published, is not there room for doubt whether the expenditure of £260 million in so-called assistance to development areas is money well spent?
§ Mr. ShoreThe logic of the hon. Gentleman's supplementary question is to suggest to me that we should be spending more in development areas, but I gather that that is not the conclusion which he has reached. The trend of the movement of industry into development areas has been very good, particularly taking into account that the last two years have not been a period of expansion and the exceptionally heavy run-down in the coal industry.
§ 4. Mr. Blakerasked the Secretary of State for Economic Affairs by how much he expects that the differential in unemployment between the development areas and the rest of the country will be reduced between the present time and 1972.
§ Mr. ShoreWe expect a further relative improvement over the period to 1972, though our provisional assessment suggests that the progress will not be evenly spread over all the development areas.
§ Mr. BlakerSince it is perfectly clear that the Government have no idea what value for money they are getting from spending £260 million a year on so-called assistance to development areas, and since they were elected on a programme of bringing cost-effectiveness into government, should not they make some effort 1770 to find out what value for money they are getting?
§ Mr. ShoreThere is a genuine difficulty in terms of the time for which these measures have been operating. The R.E.P. and the differential investment grant have been in operation, in terms of paying out, for less than two years, and it is not possible in so short a time to come to adequate conclusions about the effectiveness of these measures.
§ Mr. William HamiltonCan my right hon. Friend give to the House any figures which indicate a reduction in the differential in the unemployment rate during the last four or five years between development areas and the rest of the United Kingdom?
§ Mr. ShoreThere has been some closing of the gap between the unemployment rate in the development areas as a whole and that in Great Britain.