§ Mr. Hardyasked the Secretary of State for Industry what has been the total public expenditure incurred during each of the last seven years to promote investment in the steel industry.
§ Mr. Les HuckfieldI regret that not all the information is available in the form requested. The bulk of investment in the last seven years has been made by the British Steel Corporation, whose capital expenditure has been as follows:
Year £ million Oct. 1968-Sept. 1969 74 Oct. 1969-March 1970 (six months) 39 1970–71 143 1971–72 237 1972–73 198 1973–74 187 1974–75 311 BSC's annual report for 1975–76 is not yet available, but the corporation estimates it spent over £500 million in that year on capital investment.
In addition, the steel industry has benefitted from Government assistance to industry in general. Such assistance has been given in the past under the Industrial Development Act 1966 and the 323W Local Employment Acts, but no detailed figures are readily available. Assistance is now primarily available under the Industry Act 1972; details may be found in the annual reports to Parliament on the operation of the Act.
Expenditure on regional development grants under the first part of the Act for the entire metal manufacturing sector (SIC Order IV), including BSC, has been as follows:
Year £ million 1972–73 … … … 0.1 1973–74 … … … 19.9 1974–75 … … … 31.2 1975–76 … … … 64.2 No separate figures are available on expenditure on selective financial assistance under Section 7 of the Act for the metal manufacturing industry, but offers of assistance under this section have been as follows:
Year … … … £ million 1973–74 … … … 5.9 1974–75 … … … 9.6 1975–76 … … … 6.5 Finally, £40 million has been provided under Section 8 of the Act for a scheme of selective financial assistance to the ferrous foundry industry. Between the introduction of the scheme on 5th August 1975 and 31st March 1976, £3,868,000 of assistance had been committed towards investment of £19,544,000.