HC Deb 11 June 1968 vol 766 cc13-5W
Sir G. Sinclair

asked the Chancellor of the Exchequer whether he will circulate in the OFFICIAL REPORT details of the grants and loans to nationalised industries in the financial years 1963–64 to 1967–68, inclusive, and estimated to be made in

£ million
1963–64 1964–65 1965–66 1966–67 1967–68 1968–69 Estimated
Deficit Grants (to British Railways, L.T.B. and B.W.B.) 127.7 121.0 131.8 142.1 166.1 149.7
Investment Grants (mostly for steel) — — — — 13.7 17.8*
S.E.T. Additional Payments — — — 0.7 1.2 2.1
Regional Employment Premiums (mostly for steel) — — — — 0.5 7.9
Bus fuel grants — — 2.2 2.5 2.9 5.7
Grants under the Transport Bill — — — — — 5.5
Ports Modernisation Grants — — — — 0.8 2.0
Grants under the Coal Industry Acts, 1965 and 1967 — — — 1.3 8.4 19.5
* This figure corresponds with the provision included for public corporations in 1968–69 Estimates, but may be exceeded when the requirements of the British Steel Corporation are more closely defined.
In addition there are various small grants, e.g. under the Local Employment Acts, 1960–66; for Fish Research; and for Civil Defence.
Provisions made since October, 1964 for further grants (other than those of general application such as Investment Grants, Selective Employment Additional Payments and Regional Employment Premium) are as follows:
Coal Industry Act, 1965, Section 3, as amended by the Coal Industry Act, 1967, Section 2.
Coal Industry Act, 1967, Sections 4, 5 and 6.
Transport Finances Act, 1966, Section 1.
Finance Act, 1968, Section 92, as amended by Section 1 of the Bus Fuel Grants Act, 1966, and Section 1 of the Finance Act, 1967.
—[Vol. 739, c. 307–8]

1968–69, of the provisions which have been made since October 1964 for further grants or loans or the writing-off of capital, and of the financial results of these industries in the last four years for which figures are available.

Mr. Diamond

Much of the information required is already available in published documents: details of loans and of borrowing powers in the White Paper "Loans from the Consolidated Fund 1965–66 " (Cmnd. 2624), 1966–67 (Cmnd. 2974), 1967–68 (Cmnd. 3243), and "Loans from the National Loans Fund 1968–69 (Cmnd. 3565) and the Financial Statement 1968–69; of financial results in the White Paper: "Nationalised Industries. A Review of Economic and Financial Objectives" (Cmnd. 3437, Tables 3 and 4); and of the write-off of capital debt in the reply given to a Question by the hon. Member for Cirencester and Tewkes-bury on 25th January, 1967. The nationalised industries borrowing powers listed in Table 1 of Cmnd. 3565 do not, however, take account of recent increases in statutory borrowing limits to £270 million in the case of the London Transport Board and to £210 million in the case of the British European Airways Corporation.

Grants to the nationalised industries during the period in question are as follows: