§ Mr. Maudeasked the Secretary of State for Trade and Industry (1) how many jobs he estimates to have been lost in non-assisted areas, especially the west midlands, by the policy of grants to assisted areas;
(2) how many jobs he estimates to have been created during the last 20 years by grants to assisted areas; and what is the cost per job to the taxpayer.
§ Mr. TrippierEstimates of the effects of regional industrial policy are not available beyond 1981. It is estimated that, over the period 1960–81, regional industrial policy raised employment in the main United Kingdom assisted areas, as defined in 1979, by the order of half a millin jobs. Most of these jobs represent a diversion of activity from other parts of the country, but no estimates are available of the number of jobs lost in the west midlands, or in the non-assisted areas generally.
The cost per job is difficult to estimate because it depends on the life of jobs created by policy; and the net cost to the taxpayer also depends on the extent of flowbacks to the Exchequer. It is estimated that in the 1970s the gross public expenditure cost of creating an additional job in the British assisted areas was of the order of £35,000 at 1981 prices.
322Wedition OECD.
† Wage and salary earners. Source: Table III Labour Force Statistics 1983 edition OECD.
Figures relate to the whole economy.