§ Mr. Lawlerasked the Paymaster General how many workshops were built with assistance from the small workshops allowance during its two years of operation.
§ Mr. TrippierThe small workshops scheme was in operation from March 1980 to March 1985. Comprehensive statistics on the number of workshops qualifying for tax relief under the scheme are not available. A review of the impact of the scheme was published by the Department of Trade and Industry in 1985. This concluded that from 1980 to 1983 the scheme had a major impact on the supply of workshops up to 2,500 sq ft in size, and that the private sector supply of such workshops was perhaps of the order of three times as great as it would have been without the scheme in this period. The extension of the scheme to March 1985 for workshops not exceeding 1,250 sq ft had had a further major net impact on supply.