HC Deb 21 July 1988 vol 137 c738W
Mr. Murphy

To ask the Secretary of State for Wales (1) which of the projects in his Valleys initiative announced on 5 July had not been previously announced; and what is the value of Government funding for them;

(2) if he will publish in the Official Report a schedule of all the items in his Valleys initiative, giving the original date of announcement of each project and of each extension to a project, with the relevant level of Government spending associated with each stage of the announcements;

(3) which of the projects listed in his Valleys initiative had been announced (a) before June 1987, (b) between June 1987 and 31 December 1987 and (c) between 1 January 1988 and 31 March 1988; and what was the total value of Government funding for the projects initiated in each date band.

Mr. Peter Walker

Programmes and projects involving new or enhanced action are listed in the "Action not Words" chapter of the document "The Valleys: A Programme for the People" published on 14 June 1988. Copies are available in the Library of the House. Of the items listed only the increased level of Welsh Development Agency factory provision had been the subject of a previous announcement. The agency announced on 30 March 1988 that it intended to start building or designing an extra 1 million sq ft of factory space in 1988–89. This subsumed some of the factory building which forms part of the valleys programme.

Where it is feasible to do so, public expenditure costs of the individual projects and programmes mentioned are given in the document. In other cases expenditure will depend in part on the number and nature of projects which come forward.

Expenditure on key programmes affecting economic development, environmental improvement and urban renewal is expected to exceed £500 million over the three years of the valleys programme.