HC Deb 31 March 1977 vol 929 c223W
Mr. Hooley

asked the Secretary of State for Industry if he will list the total of aid approved from the European Regional Development Fund for Yorkshire and Humberside in 1975 and for 1976 and the comparable figures for each of the English regions, for Scotland and for Wales.

Mr. Cryer

The European Commission approved contributions from the European Regional Development Fund towards the cost of projects in the United Kingdom in 1975 and 1976 as follows:

£'000
Projects located in 1975 1976
Yorkshire and Humberside 996 2,094
Northern 7,175 18,862
North-West 3,030 6,849
East Midlands Assisted Areas 113 390
West Midlands Assisted Areas 11 3
South-West Assisted Areas 779 741
English Assisted Areas 12,104 28,939
Northern Ireland 7,751 7,222
Scotland 9,851 14,608
Wales 6,201 8,362
United Kingdom 35,907 59,131

Mr. Hooley

asked the Secretary of State for Industry what machinery of co-ordination exists between the European regional development funds and funds available from the European Coal and Steel Community to deal with problems arising from the rundown in certain areas of the coal and steel industries.

Mr. Cryer

Article 5.1(e) of the Regional Development Fund Regulation requires the Commission, when considering applications to the Fund, to take account of other contributions made by Community institutions either to the same investment or to other activities within the same region. This Article quotes the purpose for this as followsThus contributions from the Fund will be co-ordinated with other Community contributions, in such a way as to favour a range of converging and co-ordinated actions within a given region.