§ Mr. John Morrisasked the Secretary of State for Wales if he will specify where the 550 jobs have materialised in the Port Talbot travel-to-work area since April 1980, as referred to in the reply of 22 November, Official Report, c. 361.
§ Mr. Nicholas Edwards390 of the jobs in the Port Talbot travel-to-work area have materialised in the Bridgend employment exchange and 160 in the Port Talbot employment exchange. Details of employment in individual firms is supplied on a commercially confidential basis.
§ Mr. John Morrisasked the Secretary of State for Wales how many jobs have been lost in the Port Talbot travel-to-work area since April 1980 to date; what plans he has for meeting the shortfall in replacement job opportunities; and over what time scale.
§ Mr. Nicholas EdwardsComprehensive information covering net changes in employment levels is not available below a regional level. On 1 April 1980, I announced initial details of special advance factory building44W programmes for the areas of Port Talbot and Llanwern. The plans for the Port Talbot area included about 700,000 sq. ft. of advance factory space. In fact, these initial plans have been surpassed by a considerable margin. Between April 1980 and April 1983, about 880,000 sq. ft. of new advance factory space will have been completed in the wider Port Talbot area, with well over 300,000 sq. ft. within the Port Talbot travel-to-work area.
About a third of the completed space has already been allocated. Future building plans will depend on the rate at which the remaining factory space is taken up.
The massive special programme of factory building must be seen alongside other action which has been taken to assist the area, including the upgrading of the travel-towork area to special development area status and improvements in the infrastructure. Major site works have been carried out at Baglan industrial park where the Welsh Development Agency now has plans for the construction of 1¾ million sq. ft. of factory space over coming years.