HL Deb 09 March 1981 vol 418 cc98-100WA
Lord Northfield

asked Her Majesty's Government:

What capital assistance they now offer to local authorities in rural or urban areas for small factory units which such authorities decide to build; what size limits are set; how application is to be made; and what sum of money the Government are making available for this purpose.

Lord Bellwin

Local authorities can apply for grant under the urban programme towards the cost of building small factory units in urban areas with special social need. Grant is normally paid at the rate of 75 per cent. of the local authority's expenditure. No limits have been set on the size of factory units grant-aided under the urban programme. Proposals for factory schemes to be undertaken by the inner city partnership and programme authorities are contained in the draft inner area programmes which are submitted to the Department of the Environment annually. There is no set procedure for the making of applications for urban programme grant by any of the local authorities for districts designated under the Inner Urban Areas Act 1978. Applications from other urban authorities are made on a form UP1 and have to be submitted by the date specified in the Department's annual urban programme circular which, for schemes to start in 1981–82, was 31st December 1980.

No specific sum has been set aside under the urban programme for small factory units being built by urban authorities. The amount required will depend upon individual authorities' decisions about the need for such schemes in their areas, the applications received and other priorities. But it is estimated that some £8.4 million representing about 4 per cent. of the total Urban Programme resources may be spent on local authority factory building schemes in 1981–82.

So far as rural areas are concerned, it was announced on 3rd February 1981 that the development commission had been given approval to finance, jointly with local authorities, the provision of workshops not exceeding 1,000 square feet in Special Investment Areas. No specific sum of money has been earmarked for this scheme but the commission's share will have to be contained within its existing cash limit.

House adjourned at nineteen minutes before ten o'clock.