§ Mr. TrotterTo ask the Chancellor of the Duchy of Lancaster whether he will list the various schemes for assistance to industry available to business in the northern region and provide details of the total financial assistance provided to such firms in the last three years.
§ Mr. Atkins[holding answer 26 April 1988]: Assistance now available to businesses in the northern region is set out in the Department's booklet on the enterprise initiative.
Expenditure in the northern region in the three years to 31 March 1988 on the main schemes of assistance provided by my Department totalled some £350 million. This total consists of expenditure under the original and revised regional development grant schemes, project and training grants under the regional selective assistance, the business improvement services scheme, and expenditure under the Science and Technology Act and section 8 of the Industrial Development Act 1982. Details are set out in the table.
647W
million 1985–86 1986–87 1987–881 Tolal RDG I 58.1 79.5 29.0 166.6 RDG II 9.2 22.6 32.7 64.5 RSA 16.2 18.1 20.3 54.6 Science and Technology Act 4.0 3.5 1.7 9.2 Section 8, Industrial Development Act 1982 0.6 0.7 0.3 1.6 BIS2 0.4 1.2 1.6 3.2 EIEC3 16.9 11.4 20.0 48.3 Total 105.4 137.0 105.6 348.0 1Provisional.
2Direct aided schemes only.
3Includes both direct central Government funding and expenditure resulting from receipts on sales of and rents from factories.