§ 37. Mr. P. Williamsasked the President of the Board of Trade whether he is now in a position to remove any areas, at present in receipt of aid from the Board of Trade, from the list.
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§ Mr. ErrollI am satisfied that high and persistent unemployment no longer exists, or is to be expected, in the Southwold area, and I am accordingly removing it from the list of development districts.
There are other districts which I hope soon to be able to remove from the list, but their prospects are not yet sufficiently definite for me to be able to take this step now. In order, however, to concentrate our efforts on the other development districts which still need assistance, I have decided to add the following districts to those for which new applications for assistance under the Act will no longer be accepted. In all of these districts either unemployment is no longer high or there is a substantial number of jobs in prospect.
- Aspatria and Workington;
- Bodmin;
- Haltwhistle;
- Prudhoe;
- Sunderland and Houghton-le-Spring;
- and
- Paisley.
I am adding to the list of development districts four localities in which a high rate of unemployment is threatened. They are Blyth and Seaton Delaval in England and Cumnock and Lesmahagow in Scotland. I hope that the addition of these places to the list of development districts will help to secure new industry for them.