HC Deb 13 November 1974 vol 881 cc166-8W
Sir Bernard Braine

asked the Secretary of State for Industry (1) if he will give the total value of assistance given or promised to firms under the provisions of the Industry Act 1972, showing separately each firm which has received or been promised such aid with dates the commitment was made, and the amount paid or committed, and the main terms and conditions in each case;

(2) if he will list the general criteria by which he judges whether or not to give assistance under the Industry Act 1972 to companies; and if he will list the criteria which have applied in respect of each company which the Government have taken a decision to assist since 1st March 1974.

Mr. Heffer

The information requested, up to 30th September 1974, is as follows:

Industry Act. Part I: £203 million has been paid in regional development grants in response to 48,600 applications involving capital expenditure of £1,360 million.

Part II: Section 7: 1,498 offers of regional selective assistance were made in respect of projects expected to cost £1,065 million and to provide 116,000 new jobs. Payments made total £76 million.

Section 8: Selective assistance worth £16 million has been offered in respect of five projects. These offers were additional to the sums made available under the Wool Textile Industry Scheme and the North Sea Credit Scheme details of which were announced to the House on 19th July and 6th November 1973 respectively. Payments made total £8 million.

Part III: Section 11: Grants totalling £35 million have been paid for construction of ships and offshore installations.

I regret that for reasons of commercial confidentiality I am not able to list all the firms to which offers were made and to give details of relevant terms and conditions. However, the names of companies which accept offers of regional selective assistance of £10,000 or more after 31st July will be published in the Trade and Industry in the quarter after the first payment is made in accordance with the arrangements announced to the House by the Secretary of State on that date.

The general criteria governing assistance under the Industry Act are published in the annual reports to Parliament under Section 16 of the Act. As I stated to the House on 29th April 1974, the policy of the Government is to continue and develop these incentives and the new Industry Act is being introduced for that purpose.