§ Sir Anthony Meyerasked the Secretary of State for Trade how much aid in grants and loans has been made available to the British tourist industry from the European Community in each year since 1973.
§ Mr. SproatFigures for tourism allocations from the European regional development fund (ERDF) since 1975, when the fund was set up, are as follows:
£ 1975 Nil 1976 51,557 1977 231,602 1978 2,141,130 1979 6,594,669 1980 1,894,825 1981 4,392,736 The bulk of these funds has been committed for tourism infrastructure projects undertaken by local authorities and other public bodies; infrastructure receipts are paid to the authorities concerned to reduce the amount of borrowing needed to finance the projects. The remainder is a contribution towards assistance provided by the national tourist boards under Section 4 of the Development of Tourism Act 1969; these receipts are paid to the Treasury in line with the practice in other EC countries and enables the Government to allocate more funds to tourism projects than would otherwise be the case.
The scheme whereby the Government guarantee the exchange risk on European Investment Bank loans for private sector projects in the assisted areas was extended to tourism projects in August 1980. Loans disbursed to date for tourism projects under these arrangements have amounted to:
£ 1981 2,682,000 1982(to date) 2,000,000