§ Sir Eldon GriffithsTo ask the Chancellor of the Duchy of Lancaster whether there are any plans for the Department of Trade and Industry to open a new regional office in eastern England.
§ Mr. NewtonYes. The Secretary of State and I have decided to establish a full regional office in Cambridge,376W building on its existing presence there to provide an even better service to business in the counties of Norfolk, Suffolk, Cambridgeshire, Essex, Bedfordshire and Hertfordshire. This new regional office continues the process we announced in the White Paper "DTI—the Department for Enterprise" in January 1988 of strengthening and extending the regional network, recognising the importance of contacts with business at a local level.
The DTI's regional offices are now handling over 500 applications each week for the enterprise initiative consultancy schemes, as well as dealing with hundreds of export inquiries, signposting firms towards help on the single European market, the enterprise and education initiative and the regional initiative. In all cases, our regional offices work closely with chambers of commerce, local enterprise agencies and other local business organisations.
The Cambridge office will continue to get support from the three existing satellite offices linked closely with local business organisations, in Norwich, Ipswich and Chelmsford. Those satellite offices have played a valuable role in offering an open doorway to DTI services in important East Anglian business centres.