§ 5. Mr. Charles Hendry (Wealden)What his latest figure is for the GDP of East Sussex; and what this is as a percentage of (a) the mean GDP across the country and (b) the highest GDP for a county. [78226]
§ The Financial Secretary to the Treasury (Ruth Kelly)The latest sub-regional GDP data relate to 1998 and show that the GDP of East Sussex at current basic prices was £3,850 million. That represented 0.5 per cent. of total GDP for the UK. It is not meaningful to calculate mean and highest levels of GDP for counties, as counties vary in size.
§ Mr. HendryThe Financial Secretary will be aware that East Sussex's GDP per head is the third lowest in the country, below Liverpool, Newcastle and Glasgow. The Government's plans for local authority spending could result in East Sussex losing £44 million a year, despite its GDP level. Will the hon. Lady therefore have urgent discussions with her ministerial colleagues to make sure that they understand that any system designed to make local government funding fairer—a Government objective—should assist poorer counties rather than penalise them?
§ Ruth KellyPerhaps I could point out that East Sussex has benefited from this Government's policies: unemployment has fallen by 46 per cent. in the hon. Gentleman's constituency and, as a result of personal tax and benefit measures since 1997, pensioners will be £1,150 better off on average by October of next year.
I do accept that we are not prepared to ignore pockets of deprivation in areas of prosperity. That is why we are committed to balanced regional economic growth, and why we are funding the regional development agencies at an average rate of 4.5 per cent. in real terms over the next few years. We are working extremely closely with the south-east economic development agency to make sure that East Sussex benefits from a major regeneration programme over the next 10 years.