§ Sir E. Bullusasked the President of the Board of Trade if he will make a statement about progress in the payment of investment grants under the Industrial Development Act, 1966.
§ Mr. JayApplications for grant were invited from 16th January, 1967. 25,229262W applications representing expenditure of £422,020,000 had been received by 7th July, 1967. 15,693 of these applications had been cleared for payment and 13,744 payments to the value of £48,332,000 had been made. Information extracted from the first 6,050 claims representing about half the claims received so far for the first quarter of 1966 is as follows:
£ thousand Expenditure claimed Expenditure allowed Grant paid Plant and Machinery Development Areas 43,710 40,289 15,480 Other Areas 42,761 39,320 7,864 Computers Development Areas 24 20 9 Other Areas 1,104 925 185 Total Development Areas 43,764 40,309 15,489 Other Areas 43,865 40,245 8,049 Ships 8,068 5,701 1,140 Grand Total *95,697 86,255 24,678 * Some of this expenditure is still under consideration.