Mr. Hickmetasked the Secretary of State for Trade and Industry if he has decided upon the amount of grant to be made available to the Yorkshire and Humberside development association after present arrangements expire in March.
Mr. Norman LamontOfficials have had meetings with the director and staff of the association, and the chairman accepted my invitation to a meeting in August to discuss the association's plans and its request for increased grant in aid in 1984–85.
The YHDA has put forward proposals supported by outline programmes of promotional activities in respect of 1984–85 and has satisfied me that it is capable of mounting a realistic and effectively co-ordinated programme of events on behalf of the region, which will be incremental to the effort on behalf of the United Kingdom as a whole. I have therefore offered a grant in aid for 1984–85 of up to £463,000 under the second, more substantial, of the two options I set out in my letter of June 1982. The background to this was fully explained in my reply to the then hon. Member for Newcastle-upon-Tyne, North on 19 January 1983.—[Vol. 35, c. 144–45.] I have made it clear to the chairman that I expect the local authorities in the region to continue to contribute to the YHDA's budget at, or above, the level of this year's contribution.
I am not at this stage nominating any sum of money beyond 1984–85. I shall want to see how effective in practice is the co-operation promised by the local authorities. The YHDA's programme will be carefully monitored, and a decision will be taken on the grant for succeeding years, based on our experience of this year's arrangements and performance.
Because of the significant change in the scale of the grant, and the relaxation of the matching requirements, I am reviewing the conditions which attach to payment of 241W the grant. Once agreement has been reached with YHDA on the details of these conditions, I shall place a copy of them in the Library of the House.