§ Mr. Hoyleasked the Secretary of State for Trade and Industry how many closures of sub-post offices have taken place in each of the last two years; what information he has as to in how many cases local objections were made; and in how many such cases the decision to close the sub-post office was reversed.
§ Mr. TrippierIn the year to March 1983 there were 98 net closures of sub-post offices and in the year to March 1984 there were 235. I understand that the Post Office does not keep national records of the other information requested.
Expenditure† at 1983–84 prices £ million Region 1974–75 1975–76 1976–77 1977–78 1978–79 1979–80 1980–81 1981–82 1982–83 1983–84 Northern 370.9 448.6 507.6 287.8 271.8 215.5 179.9 197.2 165.6 126.0 North West 270.6 259.5 220.8 123.9 150.7 126.4 161.4 176.7 120.7 96.5 Yorkshire and Humberside 48.6 55.8 64.5 58.0 64.0 46.8 64.2 69.1 55.4 36.2 East Midlands‡ 14.6 7.3 6.0 5.1 7.3 6.1 5.5 9.6 14.2 18.0 South West 41.6 27.4 24.8 16.2 16.2 15.6 14.1 16.6 17.0 12.0 England║ 746.3 798.6 823.7 491.0 510.0 410.4 425.1 486.8 381.5 295.9 Notes:
Expenditure on 1983–84 price basis for each year is calculated by applying the appropriate deflator to expenditure at current prices.
(1) Figures for 1973–74 are not available on a comparable regional basis.
(2) All figures are gross and include payments to nationalised industries.
(3) Includes west midlands for earlier years. Oswestry TTWA lost its Intermediate Area status on 1 August 1982.
(4) From 1981–82 the figures for England include items which cannot be broken down between the northern and north-west region. The amounts involved, at constant prices are; 1981–82, £17.6 million; 1982–83, £8.6 million; and, 1983–84, £72 million.
The items included in the expenditure are regional development grants and regional selective financial assistance under the Industrial Development Act, 1982 and, expenditure on land and factories in the assisted areas by the English Industrial Estates Corporation. Regional employment premium (discontinued in January 1977) has been included for the early years.