§ Mr. Denis Howellasked the Secretary of State for Industry what consideration he has given to the latest unemployment figures for the West Midlands showing a rise to 16.2 per cent. of all employees; what initiatives he proposes to take to stimulate West Midlands industries, and to create the new industries required to reverse the unemployment trend and when he expects his policies to create new jobs.
§ Mr. MacGregor[pursuant to his reply, 26 July 1982, c. 402]: The Government have already implemented a large number of measures of industrial support of benefit to industries in the West Midlands. Within the region we have established an enterprise zone at Dudley and an enterprise allowance pilot scheme at Coventry, the latter already helping 217 people to start their own businesses. We have suspended the last regional constraint on industrial development, the industrial development certificates. We have provided continued extensive support for BL, a large proportion of which has benefited BL plants in the West Midlands and component suppliers throughout the region. More generally firms in the region have benefited from national support schemes including the product and process development scheme, the microprocessor applications programme—£2.3 million since May 1979—and section 8 of the Industry Act 1972—offers of £24 million since May 1979. In the small firms field the region has taken up £14.7 million of loan guarantees under the loan guarantee scheme. Most recently the region has benefited substantially from the small engineering firms investment scheme; by 2 July 109 offers of assistance worth £2.46 million had been made.
New jobs and firms are being created all the time in the region and throughout the United Kingdom. VAT-based information from 1980 suggests that there was a net increase of 1,400 firms in the West Midlands in that year alone. All our initiatives serve to reinforce this vital process of new firm formation and thus create much needed jobs.