Dr. ThomasTo ask the Secretary of State for Wales what was the total budget of the Welsh Development Agency in 1988–89 and 1989–90; and what proportion of this was allocated to the North Wales office.
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§ Mr. Peter Walker[holding answer 19 February 1990]: The information is as follows:
The total budget of the Welsh Development Agency was £113 million in 1988–89 and £130.4 million in 1989–90. Land reclamation, environmental improvement, urban renewal and the factory building programmes are controlled and financed centrally by the Welsh Development Agency. No accurate breakdown of expenditure on these activities is available on a regional office basis.
Programmes administered by the regional offices include property management, business development unit courses, advertising and regional promotions, investment, rural conversion grants, DRIVE—the development of rural initiative, venture and enterprise—and administration costs. Details of expenditure by regional office are set out in the table:
Total Regional Office Expenditure on specified programmes North Wales Regional Office1 Expenditure on specified programmes £ million £ million per cent. 1988–89 13.8 3.2 (23) 21989–90 11.1 3.0 (27) 1 North Wales is served by 2 of the WDA's 6 regional offices, sited at Bangor (covering North Wales West) and Wrexham (covering North Wales East). 2 Latest forecast expenditure for 1989.90.