Policy Programme (Achievement) (Hansard, 22 July 1982)

§ Mr. Nicholas Edwards

The good progress made by my Department in implementing the Government's policies for Wales is summarised below.

Industry and Employment Significant progress has been made in the last 12 months in the provision of industrial sites and factory space throughout Wales, particularly in those areas affected by reductions in employment in the steel industry. At Shotton the special factory programme is now substantially completed and over 100 new factories—750,000 sq ft of industrial floorspace—have been 258W provided to date, mainly on the Deeside and Wrexham industrial estates. Forty-four of these, totalling 275,000 sq ft, have already been allocated. In South Wales the special funds made available by the Government have now been spent by the Welsh Development Agency and the Cwmbran development corporation. Over 250 units, totalling 1.5 million sq ft, were completed in 1981–82 and more are under construction or planned. About 90 units, totalling 400,000 sq ft, have been allocated so far. I also announced, in June 1981, a special £7½ million factory building programme for the Llanelli area to help to offset the effects of the closure of the Duport steelworks. As a result a major new industrial estate is being developed by the WDA and around 200,000 sq ft of advance factory space is being provided. The non-steel areas have also been assisted. In February this year I approved a further programme of factory building by the WDA which will concentrate on Mid-Glamorgan and also on the rural parts of Gwynedd, Dyfed and Clwyd, involving the expenditure of over £11 million. More than 70 factories—300,000 sq ft—are planned and nearly 50 acres of land will be prepared for industry. In January I approved the WDA's latest programme of derelict land reclamation. Expenditure will be about £16 million and a further 1,300 acres of land will be rehabilitated for industry, housing and recreational purposes. This represents a significant addition to the 6,000 acres which have been programmed for reclamation by the agency since 1976. Success in attracting new inward investment to Wales has continued during the last 12 months and established industries have also undertaken investment programmes. Recent developments include, for example, new projects by Squibb-Surgicare, Intermagnetics (Wales) Ltd., Yuasa Batteries, Pendar Robotics, AB Electronics, Catnic Components and Smiths Industries. In February the Chemical Bank announced its intention to move part of its United Kingdom operation to Cardiff, bringing 300 to 350 jobs to the capital city. In 1981–82, 138 offers of section 7 selective financial assistance amounting to £18.8 million were accepted for projects in Wales. These projects involved a total investment of £176.5 million and are expected to create or safeguard 10,876 jobs over the next three to four years. The enterprise zone in Swansea is making encouraging progress. Development is under way on nearly 13 acres of the site and construction has commenced on over 225,000 sq ft of floorspace, with a further 78,000 sq ft committed. The first private sector development was formally opened on 2 July 1982. As part of the recent review of assisted areas, the Llanelli and Pontypool travel-to-work areas have been upgraded from a mix of intermediate and development areas to uniform development area status. A substantial package of rural measures has also been provided for Mid Wales consequent upon adjustments in the assisted area map. It is expected that 45,000 young people will enter the youth opportunities programme in Wales this year, compared with 41,000 last year. About 8,000 of the places provided will be new-style, year-long training places, some of which will be created under the information technology centre programme. Three centres have already been announced for Wales, in Kelsterton, Neath and Cardiff, and several more are under discussion. My Department has secured one of the pilot areas under the experimental enterprise allowance scheme covering the borough areas of Wrexham Maelor, Alyn and Deeside and Delyn. The operation of the scheme in this area is very encouraging; at the end of June, after only three months of operation, 123 people were already receiving the allowance and 44 more applications were under considertion. At £15.3 million, the urban programme for 1982–83 has been increased by more than 30 per cent. from its planned provision of £11.6 million. A total of 146 new schemes have been approved this year at a cost of £10.8 million. About £8 million of this has been allocated for new nursery factory units, workshops and other job creating schemes with the promise of some 3,500 job opportunities. Bids from local authorities for the 1983–84 urban programme will soon be considered and I will be announcing details of successful schemes later in the year. I intend to introduce into Wales the urban development grant scheme for 1983–84. Local authorities are being asked to submit schemes for consideration by 30 September 1982 with decisions being announced before the end of the year. The Development Board for Rural Wales completed a further 35 factories in the last 12 months. Existing factories provide 259W some 4,860 jobs and, when the present construction programme is complete and all factories fully occupied, there will be around 6,750 job opportunities. In 1981–82 the Wales Tourist Board approved 118 grants totalling £1.911 million for tourism projects under section 4 of the Development of Tourism Act 1969. The board will have almost £2 million available for section 4 assistance in 1982–83. Of the £132 million committed to Wales from the "Quota" side of the European regional development fund since 1975, some £25 million has been committed in the last year since July 1981. During the spring, some £10.5 million was also approved for Wales under the "Non-Quota" side of the ERDF. This money is to be shared between the counties of Clwyd, Gwent, South and West Glamorgan over the next three years and has been allocated in recognition of the problems of these areas caused by the decline in steel making.

Agriculture and Fisheries The Government have continued their policy of support for the agriculture industry. Some £28 million has been paid to Welsh farmers under the sheepmeat regime since its inception in 1980. In 1981–82 £1.9 million was paid under the suckler cow premium scheme also introduced in 1980. Increased hill livestock compensatory allowances were announced in November 1981 and payments in 1982 in Wales will amount to some £24 million compared to £14.6 million in 1979. Since July 1981 a further four marketing and processing projects have been awarded FEOGA grants totalling £1 million under regulation 355/77 and some £77,000 has been award under the FEOGA scheme for restructuring the inshore fishing industry. In the same period Welsh Office grants totalling £32,000 have been made to two market research projects. Welsh producers will also benefit from the activities of the recently announced "Food from Britain" organisation.

Roads Improvement to the A55 North Wales coast road from Chester to west of Bangor continues. Since last July work has started on the Llanddulas-Colwyn Bay section costing £35 million, the Colwyn Bay to Glanconwy section, costing £41 million, and th Hawarden bypass costing £18 million. In Gwynedd, work started on the Bangor bypass, costing £17.2 million in August 1981 and on the Llanfair PG bypass costing £4.9 million in January 1982. In South Wales the M4 has been completed to Pont Abraham except for the Baglan-Lonlas section. Major improvements are being made to the important A40-A48 route.

Water I have reconstituted the Welsh Water Authority, with effect from 1 April 1982, as a board of 13 members, all appointed by me, in place of the previous constitution which provided for 35 members, 20 of whom were appointed by local authorities. This reorganisation, which will be complemented by the establishment of local advisory committees to represent consumer interests more effectively, will provide a more appropriate basis for pursuing more efficient financial and managerial control.

Health During the last 12 months I have given approval to start on 10 new major health capital building schemes, and to expenditure of nearly £25.5 million on existing major schemes already in progress. In addition, the annual sum available to health authorities for their smaller schemes has been raised from £6 million to £8 million. I have arranged for additional funds of more than £1 million per annum for the next five years to be made available for the development of community based services for mentally handicapped people. Grants totalling over £562,000 will be made to voluntary bodies active in health and personal social services in Wales in 1982–83. This is an increase of £87,000 over last year's total grant. The grants are intended to help voluntary organisations meet the headquarters administrative costs. Four new grants totalling £68,000 are included and are an indication of Ministers' resolve to encourage and promote a more effective partnership between the voluntary and statutory sectors in meeting the needs of the community. The district health authorities in Wales are well advanced with their plans for introducing management arrangements to give full effect to the Government's policy of bringing the administration of the health service closer to those who use it.

Education 260W In September 1981 the nine schools in Wales participating in the assisted places scheme admitted their first assisted pupils. Altogether 115 assisted places were awarded in the 1981–82 academic year. In June, 1982, my Department and the Department of Education and Science published the consultative document "Science Education in Schools", which discussed the place of science in the curriculum during the compulsory period of education and invited views on the approach to teaching and training. The Secretary of State for Education and Science and I will consider the responses and publish a policy statement in due course. Under the microelectronics education programme a curriculum development project to produce software packages on word and information processing is making good progress. The regional resource centre has now set up a subsidiary unit in Wrexham to serve the North Wales area. I announced in May 1982 the establishment of a Wales Advisory Body for Local Authority Higher Education to advise me in a more formal and comprehensive way than before on issues arising in local authority higher education in Wales. A pilot scheme has been launched for national scholarships for priority teachers, ie teachers in mathematics and science in a bid to secure some of the best graduates for teacher training. The scheme provides for a scholarship of £500 over and above any mandatory grant; and a guarantee in advance of a teaching job with one of the authorities taking part. Candidates were selected to begin their training in 1982–83 and the scholarships are tenable at University College, Aberystwyth for mathematics and University College, Cardiff for science. Ten scholarships were offered in the first year.

Welsh Language The grant offered for Welsh language education projects under section 21 of the Education Act for 1982–83 is £866,000, an increase of £72,000 on the amount offered in 1981–82. A total of £2.4 million is available during 1983–84 to support the Government's policy of fostering the Welsh language.

Housing Over 40,000 tenants in Wales have applied to buy their homes under the Housing Act 1980. Working to targets set by the Department, local authorities are now completing sales at a rate of about 4,000 per quarter. To help public sector tenants who wish to exchange their homes in order to move to other areas, my Department in conjunction with DOE, set up a computer-based tenants exchange scheme in April 1982, to complement the national mobility scheme introduced a year earlier.