§ Mr. Parryasked the Secretary of State for the Environment (1) how many jobs have been saved on Merseyside by the direct intervention of the task force to the latest available date;
(2) if he is satisfied with the working of the Merseyside task force; and if he will make a statement;
59W(3) if he will list in the Official Report the number of jobs provided by the task force on Merseyside to the latest available date.
§ Mr. Patrick Jenkin[pursuant to his reply, 27 June 1983, c. 39]: The task force has worked with local authorities, nationalised industries, private companies and other local bodies on a wide range of projects. The main purposes are to bring derelict or vacant land into use, to improve housing conditions, to upgrade the environment and to provide additional opportunities for training. One objective is to help to make Merseyside more attractive to investors. When I visit Merseyside on 8 July, I hope to make an assessment of progress so far and of the scale of the task ahead. It is not possible to quantify the number of jobs saved or provided through the task force's efforts, or to separate out the impacts of its activities from other measures, e.g. the Merseyside Development corporation, special development area status and the urban programme.