§ Mr. Hickmetasked the Secretary of State for the Environment what studies his Department has made of the effect of rate levels upon investment and employment.
71W
§ Mr. WaldegraveThe Department commissioned a study by the department of land economy of the university of Cambridge on the general effects of non-domestic rates on the location of employment in England and Wales over the period 1974 to 1981 and the report was published by the authors on 6 March 1985.
Copies of the report, and of a letter I have sent asking for the comments of interested bodies, are in the library. The Department is also aware of cases in which extreme rate levels and increases in rates have deterred individual firms from investing or from creating employment in the areas affected.