§ Mr. Marksasked the Secretary of State for Industry what criterion of unemployment he uses in assessing eligibility of an area for assisted area status.
§ Mr. MacGregorThe Government's regional policy aims to concentrate on the areas of greatest need. While there is no specific criterion for unemployment it is one of the circumstances laid down in the Industry Act 1972 to be taken into account in designating assisted areas. In the absence of special circumstances I would not consider for assisted area status an area which had not been experiencing persistently high levels of unemployment very significantly above the national average.
31 December 1975 1976 1977 1978 1979 1980 (a)Number of Employees 180,000 187,000 198,000 187,000 169,000 ✶ 141,000 (b) Vehicles production in units 794,000 820,000 806,000 771,000 658,000 548,000 ✶estimate. Estimates of BL's funding in constant price terms are not available. The figures given below are in current price terms and are taken from the published annual accounts of BL Ltd. Accounts for 1980 are not yet available. The
(c)(i) Public Funding £m 30 September 1975 31 December 1976 (15 month) 1977 1978 1979 Equity — 200 200 650 800 Loans: Industry Act 7 8.9 8.5 5.5 3.3 DTI 10 — — — — NEB — ✶10 160 160 160 ✶ formerly DTI loan. (ii) In addition to the above, £25 million of equity was committed (but is not yet all advanced) in 1978 to the NEB for its stake in Wholesale Vehicle Finance Ltd., an NEB subsidiary set up to finance BL dealers' stocks.
(d) Other borrowings £m 30 December 1975 31 December 1976 (15 month) 1977 1978 1979 Loan capital and long-term loans 60.9 71.8 72.1 97.5 192.1 Convertible unsecured loan stock 1982–87 26.7 26.7 26.7 26.7 26.7