Departmental Responsibility (Hansard, 28 April 1983)

§ Mr. Nicholas Edwards

For details of progress made between May 1979 and July 1982 I refer my hon. Friend to my replies to my hon. Friend the Member for Melton (Mr. Latham) on 11 June 1980—[Vol. 986, c.216—on 13 July 1981—[Vol. 8, c. 289]—and on 22 July 1982—[Vol. 28, c. 257–60.] Copies of my letters of 19 June 1980 and 13 July 1981 referred to in these replies have been placed in the Library. Progress made by my Department in implementing the Government's policies for Wales since July 1982 is summarised as follows:

INDUSTRY AND EMPLOYMENT The Welsh Development Agency's advance factory programme has been continued at a significant rate. In the financial year 1982–83 the agency completed over 200 new factories amounting to over 1 million sq ft of industrial floorspace. This total includes a good deal of work which has been continuing in the steel areas of north and south Wales. In 1979 I launched a special programme for the Shotton area. 136 factories amounting to 1 million sq ft have now been completed there and over half of them have been allocated. The special programme for Port Talbot and Llanwem now comes to about 350 factories—2 million sq ft of space—which should be completed by this autumn. Tenants have been found for nearly half the factories built so far. Other parts of Wales have also received capital investment in terms of WDA factory provision. The first new factories in the agency's special development at Llanelli are now under construction. In February 1982 I announced a programme of work to cover Mid-Glamorgan and many parts of north and west Wales. This will be completed in the next few months. I have asked the agency to maintain a continuous review of the need for factory provision. The first outcome of this has been that I announced a supplementary building programme earlier this month which will mean that industrial space should be available in all areas of Wales. This will be of particular value as the economy moves out of recession. The rate of demand for WDA factories has been encouraging. In 1982–83 276 units were allocated—and this represented a 26 per cent. increase over the number in the previous financial year. The amount of investment business transacted by the WDA has increased considerably. In 1982–83 over £5.5 million was invested in 52 firms—more than three times as much as in the 407W previous financial year. The WDA's new venture capital subsidy—Hafren Investment Finance — has played its part in this revival. In the eight months since its launch it has approved £800,000 of investments in 17 firms, many of which will operate in the field of high technology. Good progress has been made on the land reclamation front. During 1982–83 the Agency completed 26 projects involving 330 acres of derelict land and costing some £6 million. On 1 April 1983 Wales Invest Location—WINVEST— began operations. The competition to attract internationally mobile projects has become very much keener in recent years. To meet this challenge I decided that WINVEST should be set up to unify the previous arrangements for attracting inward investment and thereby improve the way in which potential interest in investing in Wales is translated into firm projects. Success in attracting new inward investment to Wales has continued during recent months and there have also been a number of major developments both by existing and new industries. Recent developments include new projects by Align Rite, Heinrich Gillet, Dragon Data, Smith Kendon, Adams Bros (Raunds) and the Avana Group. In March, United Paper Mills announced its decision to establish a new pulp and newsprint mill at Shotton. The project is expected to secure a total of 1,200 jobs including 275 in the mill itself and the balance in forestry and timber haulage and related service industries. In 1982–83 176 offers of Section 7 selective financial assistance amounting to £24.9 million were accepted for projects in Wales. These projects involved a total investment of £208.9 million and are expected to create or safeguard 11,860 jobs over the next three to four years. In the past year I have announced proposals for two further Enterprise Zones for Wales. The Delyn Zone should commence operations this Summer and I announced the location of a third Welsh Zone on the Milford Haven Waterway on 30 March 1983. The first Zone to be designated (in the Lower Swansea Valley) is showing encouraging signs of progress. Between designation and 31 December 1982, development commenced on over 28 acres of land and construction commenced on more than 415,000 sq ft of floorspace, with a further 64,000 sq ft committed. In its first 18 months of operation, 69 firms became committed to location in the Zone, including 24 entirely new start-up firms and 17 new branches. Of last year's minimum age school-leavers in Wales who were unable to find jobs, all but 170 were offered a place on the Youth Opportunity Programmes by Christmas. The new one-year Youth Training Scheme was launched at the beginning of April: the Manpower Services Commission are optimistic of meeting their target of around 25,000 places, some 15,000 of which will be employer sponsored. It is expected that about 11 Information Technology Centres will be approved for Wales. The Neath Centre has been opened and centres have been approved for Kelsterton, Cardiff, Pontypridd and Llanelli. Proposals are in the pipeline for schemes in Bangor, Blaenau Gwent, Bridgend, Newport, Wrexham and Dyfed. £21 million was allocated to urban programme initiatives, including over £3 million for the new Urban Development Grant for 1983–84. Within the £17.7 million allocated for the traditional urban programme, 180 new schemes have been introduced into the programme at a cost of £11.15 million. Of this, around £6 million has been allocated for nursery factory units workshops and other industrial and commercial projects, and nearly £5 million has been committed to new environmental improvement projects and other schemes to alleviate social problems. 12 private sector projects have been given approval in principle under the Urban Development Grant scheme; these would trigger a total investment of £29 million. During the period 1 August 1982 to 31 March 1983, the Development Board for Rural Wales completed a further 19 factories. Existing factories provide over 5,000 jobs and, when the present construction programme (including the Board's 1983–84 programme for its area excluding Newtown which I approved in February) is complete and all factories fully occupied, there will be over 7,000 job opportunities. The Mid Wales Development Grant Scheme, which I announced in June following the adjustments to the assisted area map is now operational and already £173,000 of grant for 12 projects has been approved by the Board. Additionally, initial applications for 408W grant under the Board's Rural Building Concession Grant Scheme, which I announced in January, are already being processed. In the period 1 August 1982 to 31 March 1983 the Wales Tourist Board approved 40 grants totalling £1.253 million for tourism projects under Section 4 of the Development of Tourism Act 1969. The Board will have just over £2 million available for Section 4 assistance in 1983–84. A further £35 million in commitment to Wales under the European Regional Development Fund has been announced since August 1982, including £14 million in October 1982 and a record tranche of £21 million in January 1983. This brought total commitment in respect of schemes submitted in 1982 to just under £50 million which is the highest annual total since the Fund was established in 1975. So far a total of £1.2 million has been allocated from the European Regional Development Fund to help small firms in Clwyd, Gwent, South Glamorgan and West Glamorgan in recognition of the problems caused by the decline in steel-making.

AGRICULTURE AND FISHERIES The Government have continued the policy of support for the agriculture industry. Some £58 million has been paid to Welsh farmers under the sheepmeat regime since its inception in 1980 and £5.6 million under the suckler cow premium scheme introduced the same year. Rates of Hill Livestock Compensatory Allowances have increased by about 50% since the Government took office, and payments in Wales will amount to about £24 million in 1983, compared with £14.6 million in 1979. Since May 1979 some £85 million has been paid out under both the national and EC capital grant schemes and almost £l million from the temporary support schemes for the fishing industry in wales.

ROADS Since August 1982, the A40 Pontyfenni Diversion has been completed at a cost of £3 million. Work has started on the A40 Carmarthen-Bancyfelin Improvement (costing £10 million), the A4232 Culverhouse Cross-Capel Llanilltern Improvement (costing £15 million) and the A470 Abercynon-Pentrebach Improvement (costing £46 million). Altogether there are 10 major projects (including 4 on the A5 and A55) under construction costing £275 million. Preparatory work is continuing on improvements to the A40/A48, the A483 near Wrexham and on 6 further sections of the A55 costing £220 million on which construction is expected to start within the next two or three years.

WATER I have issued guidelines for the setting up of 7 local consumer advisory committees—one for each Division of the Welsh Water Authority. These committees have now been set up and enable the various consumer groups' interests and views to be represented to the Authority. I have issued a set of objectives which I expect the Welsh Water Authority to be guided by in the formulation of their future plans and in their day to day operations. I shall judge their future performance in relation to those objectives. The new Authority which I appointed last April has been able to accelerate the cost reduction plan which they inherited from their predecessors. This will lead to an earlier reduction in manpower and other costs as well as improvements in efficiency.

COAST PROTECTION In June 1980 I authorised a survey of the coastline of Wales in order to obtain basic information for a review of coastal policy and the Coast Protection Act 1949. The survey was undertaken during the period October 1980 to June 1982 and the Report of Survey was published in October 1982. The review of policy is in hand.

HEALTH I have made available additional resources to provide some 2 per cent. real growth in the NHS in Wales in 1983–84 and funded the first year of a three year programme to eliminate inequalities in health authority funding. I have also established a system of annual review of health authorities' performance to ensure that the record level of resources provided for the NHS is used effectively, efficiently and in accordance with agreed priorities. 409W I have approved a health capital building programme for 1983–84 which includes starts on 4 new major health capital building schemes and expenditure of nearly £27.3 million on major schemes already in progress. In addition health authorities have received £8 million for their smaller schemes. The introduction of the new health management units is bringing responsibility for day to day management of the service closer to the patient. Provision for personal social services rose between 1978–79 and 1981–82 by 4 per cent. more than would have been needed to keep pace with inflation and reached £84.5 million in 1981–82. Since then I have increased the cash provision for personal social services to £100.7 million for 1982–83 and to £110.1 million for 1983–84. Grants totalling over £627,000 will be made to voluntary bodies active in health and personal social services in Wales in 1983–84. This is an increase of £65,000 over last year's total grant. The grants are intended to help voluntary organisations meet the headquarters administrative costs. Four new grants totalling £58,000 are included and are evidence of the Government's continuing support of the development of an effective partnership between the voluntary and statutory sectors in meeting the needs of the community. In addition £250,000 was made available under the 'Opportunities for Volunteering' scheme. A specially designed artificial limb centre was opened at Morriston Hospital in 1981 and I have recently approved the construction of a purpose-built artificial limb and appliance centre at Rookwood Hospital to replace the present facilities in Cardiff. I have launched a 10 year strategy to develop community-based services for mentally handicapped people which builds up to £26 million of additional recurring annual expenditure.

EDUCATION Following the Government's decision to replace the Schools Council with 2 new bodies, my right hon. Friend the Secretary of State for Education and Science and I established a Secondary Examinations Council, the membership of which was announced in March, to supervise the school examinations system and advise on examinations policy. Establishment of another body concerned with curriculum development is still the subject of discussion with local authorities. Since January 1983, reports of formal inspections of schools and colleges by Her Majesty's Inspectors have been made public. A more systematic procedure has also been introduced for the follow-up of reports with local education authorities. A new Certificate of pre-vocational education at 17-plus will be available to students at schools and colleges throughout Wales from September. The Business and Technician Education Council and the City and Guilds of London Institute have been invited to establish joint arrangements for a national system of pre-vocational education on behalf of and accountable to my right hon. Friend the Secretary of State for Education and Science and myself. For this purpose the Government is prepared to make a grant to help cover initial costs of the joint arrangements. The Manpower Services Commission, in conjunction with my Department and the Department of Education and Science will be developing pilot schemes under the Technical and Vocational Education Initiative. Each scheme will provide 4 year courses for some 250 pupils each year from the age of 14 to 18. Clwyd County Council's proposal to run the pilot scheme in Wales from September 1983 has been provisionally accepted. The main provisions of the Education Act 1981, which provides a new legal framework for the assessment of children with special educational needs, came into force this month. I am putting in hand a scheme of direct grants for in-service teacher training to give direct assistance to authorities who release serving teachers for further training on designated courses in certain priority areas. The scheme is directed towards management training for head teachers and senior staff, the teaching of mathematics, special educational needs in ordinary schools, pre-vocational education in schools and the needs of Welsh language teachers. 410W I made available a sum of £0.1 million which has been added into the advanced further education quantum for 1983–84 specifically to expand courses designed to improve the supply of qualified manpower in Information Technology. I have accepted the advice of the Wales Advisory Body for Local Authority Higher Education on the distribution of this sum to boost the information technology initiative in the 2 fields of computing and electronic engineering supporting 60 additional places at degree and diploma/certificate levels. I have made available a similar sum to support developments in information technology in non-advanced further education. I have, with my right hon. Friend the Secretary of State for Education and Science, introduced a new scheme of teacher training awards to encourage mature people with suitable qualifications and experience to train to teach Craft, Design and Technology in secondary schools.

WELSH LANGUAGE. The grant offered for Welsh language education projects under Section 21 of the Education Act 1980 is £918,000 for 1983–84, an increase of £52,000 on the amount offered in 1982–83. A further £996,000 has been made available for a variety of constructive projects undertaken by voluntary organisations. In addition, assistance including support for language related research and the provision of bilingual road signs brings total support for the language to £2.5 million for 1983–84.

HOUSING By 31 March 1983 the number of public sector tenants in Wales who had applied to buy their homes under the Housing Act 1980 had increased to over 49,000. Sales completed by landlord authorities had increased to almost 24,000. Significant progress has now been made by the Welsh local authorities in the field of low cost housing. So far 10 authorities have sold land to developers to provide low cost small homes for first time buyers, while 7 have entered into partnership schemes. To assist in the rehabilitation of the private sector, 10 authorities are actively engaged in Improvement for Sale and Homesteading. Support is also being given to first time buyers via the Mortgage Guarantee Scheme. The Government's Low Cost Home Ownership initiative has also been very successful through the Housing Corporation's activities. Shared Ownership schemes with a value of nearly £7 million have been approved; and approvals under the recently launched Do It Yourself Shared Ownership Schemes are valued at about £2½ million. Expenditure in excess of £4½ million has been committed to Leasehold Schemes for the Elderly. Overall, the Housing Corporation have spent more than £46 million on housing projects to the benefit of Wales in 1982–83. House Renovation Grants with a value of over £58 million were approved in 1982 by Welsh local authorities, including £22.4 million for Repair Grants. In the last quarter of 1982, Grants were being approved at a rate equivalent to over 27,000 a year. In March this year, I approved the first enveloping scheme in Wales relating to 130 houses in Newport. Several other local authorities in Wales are in discussion with my Department about enveloping schemes in their areas.