Employment

HC Deb 19 February 1975 vol 886 cc420-2W

Mr. John Evans

asked the Secretary of State for Industry what has been the amount of public money spent, in total and per head of population, creating jobs in Scotland, Wales and each of the eight English regions served by an economic planning council in the last 10 years.

Mr. Gregor Mackenzie

The information is not available in precisely the form requested. The table below shows the amount spent on regional preferential assistance by assisted areas.

Population figures are not readily available for individual assisted areas but expenditure per head in present development

	1970–71	1971–72	1972–73	1973–74
	£	£	£	£
Development Areas (including special Development Areas)	22.6	19.8	18.4	23.6
Intermediate areas	0.3	0.5	0.5	2.3
All assisted areas	11.8	10.4	9.7	13.2

The above figures take no account of the differential value of tax allowances which were available at various times in the period.

Mr. John Evans

asked the Secretary of State for Industry how many jobs have been created by his Department's activities in Scotland, Wales and each of the eight English regions served by an

EMPLOYMENT ASSOCIATED WITH PROJECTS OFFERED ASSISTANCE UNDER THE LOCAL EMPLOYMENT ACTS
									('000)
				Development Areas
Financial year	Northern	Merseyside	South Western	Total England*	Welsh	Scottish	Intermediate Areas	Total
1964–65	…	n/a	n/a	n/a	37	2	21	—	60
1965–66	…	n/a	n/a	n/a	44	6	42	—	92
1966–67	…	24	11	2	37	13	36	—	86
1967–68	…	19	8	2	29	14	25	—	67
1968–69	…	26	9	3	38	15	23	Nil	75
1969–70	…	34	14	3	50	18	27	1	97
1970–71	…	23	9	3	35	13	25	10	83
1971–72	…	12	7	3	22	9	17	14	62
1972–73	…	13	5	2	20	10	20	11	61
1973–74	…	5	1	†	6	5	10	4	24
The totals have been rounded and do not necessarily add.
* Including assistance offered in the former Development Districts; coverage of area has varied over time.
† Less than 500.

EMPLOYMENT ASSOCIATED WITH PROJECTS OFFERED ASSISTANCE UNDER SECTION 7 OF THE INDUSTRY ACT
						('000)
					Financial year
					1972–73	1973–74
Scotland	…	…	…	…	3	16
Wales	…	…	…	…	2	11
Northern Region	…	…	…	…	3	15
Yorkshire and Humberside Region	…	…	…	…	1	12
South-West Region	…	…	…	…	1	2
North-West Region	…	…	…	…	2	15
East Midlands	…	…	…	…	—	1
Total	…	…	…	…	12	72

The figures in the tables do not give a complete picture as no account is taken of the effect of other important forms of regional assistance, particularly Regional Development Grant and Investment Grant, payable irrespective of whether additional employment is created, as well as Regional Employment Premium. On the other hand some of the jobs in the

areas and intermediate areas since 1970–71 has been:

economic planning council in each of the last 10 years.

Mr. Heffer

Information is not available in precisely the form requested. Additional employment expected to arise in the assisted areas from projects assisted under the Local Employment Acts and in the economic planning regions from projects assisted under Section 7 of the Industry Act, for the years 1964–65 to 1973–74, is set out in the tables below:

tables would have arisen without Government assistance.