Regional Aid

HC Deb 10 March 1988 vol 129 cc298-9W

Mr. Frank Field

To ask the Chancellor of the Duchy of Lancaster if he will publish in theOfficial Report the amount of regional preferential assistance paid to each standard region of England, Scotland and Wales in 1986–87, identifying separately the main forms of assistance: and if he will publish equivalent data for each year since 1978–79.

Mr. Atkins

[holding answer 8 March 1988] The information requested is as follows:

Government expenditure on regional preferential assistance for industry1
(£ millions)
		Financial year:
Form of assistance	Region	1978–79	1979–80	1980–81	1981–82	1982–83	1983–84	1984–85	1985–86	1986–87
1. Regional development grant	Northern	135.0	122.4	117.5	143.9	127.2	101.3	89.0	67.3	102.2
	North West	64.3	58.7	105.7	143.4	97.3	83.0	80.0	62.1	101.3
	Yorkshire/Humberside	30.2	21.5	38.7	47. 1	36.4	23.5	26.8	24.2	27.1
	South West	6.0	5.0	8.5	10.3	11.0	7.8	9.5	8.6	15.3
	East Midlands	2.3	2.4	3.2	7.2	8.8	8.2	3.8	4.4	8.4
	West Midlands	0.1	—	—	—	—	—	—	—	—
	England	238.1	210.0	273.7	351.9	280.7	223.8	209.0	166.6	254.4
	Scotland	107.3	70.2	113.3	142.7	287.3	143.0	109.0	107.5	170.5
	Wales	71.5	50.7	103.5	122.2	121.5	72.1	92.7	84.4	88.8
	Great Britain2	416.9	330.9	490.5	616.8	689.6	438.9	410.6	358.5	513.4
2. Selective financial assistance	Northern	10.7	11.5	13.0	21.1	21.1	11.1	14.9	16.0	18.0
	North West	40.1	20.6	15.2	315.7	18.3	314.7	11.4	12.7	18.2
	Yorkshire/Humberside	5.2	6.8	6.1	7.1	10.6	8.7	9.1	7.2	10.2
	South West	2.4	3.1	1.7	1.7	2.7	2.0	1.7	2.3	4.7
	East Midlands	0.7	0.9	0.5	1.0	4.2	9.4	6.3	3.9	2.1
	West Midlands	—	—	—	—	—	—	—	4.6	9.8
	England	59.1	42.9	36.5	46.6	56.9	45.9	43.5	46.7	63.0
	Scotland	12.4	14.0	21.2	19.0	20.1	23.9	29.3	46.9	35.4
	Wales	30.4	6.1	7.8	10.0	14.5	12.2	17.9	21.8	27.2
	Great Britain2	103.4	78.9	74.0	75.6	91.5	82.0	90.7	115.4	125.6
3. Expenditure by English estates on land and factories	Northern	13.2	13.9	14.9	10.1	10.2	12.3	18.3	11.1	16.9
	North West	9.63	37.4	9.3	315.7	38.7	36.5	10.2	11.1	9.0
	Yorkshire/Humberside	2.0	3.8	7.4	7.4	5.9	3.3	6.0	2.9	4.1
	South West	1.2	2.6	1.3	2.8	2.7	2.1	2.5	0.9	2.2
	East Midlands	0.4	0.8	0.9	0.4	0.7	—	—	—	—
	West Midlands	0.1	0.1	—	—	—	—	—	0.9	0.2
	England	26.5	28.6	33.9	36.4	27.7	24.2	37.0	26.9	32.4
Expenditure by Scottish and Welsh development agencies on land and factories	Scotland	27.8	37.8	47.3	55.1	46.4	43.6	23.3	32.4	20.2
	Wales	30.2	43.4	60.0	65.9	46.2	28.4	30.1	25.4	27.6
4. Highland and Islands development board	Scotland	6.1	8.5	11.4	11.8	15.6	17.3	22.9	17.9	15.8
5. Development board for rural Wales	Wales	—	—	—	—	—	4.1	5.3	6.1	6.8
1 All figures are gross and include payments to nationalised industries.
2 The Great Britain total for individual forms of assistance may not always equal the sum of the component parts due to the inclusion of items which cannot be allocated to regions, and because of rounding.
3 Includes expenditure in Cumbria, otherwise shown within the totals for the northern region.

The items included in the expenditure are: regional development grants and regional selective assistance; expenditure on land and factories by the English Industrial Estates Corporation, the Scottish and the Welsh Development Agencies; and expenditure on land and factories and grants by the Development Board for Rural Wales, and the Highlands and Islands Development Board.