§ Mr. FavellTo ask the Secretary of State for Wales if he will estimate the average domestic rate bill in each local authority in Wales which would be necessary to yield the same revenue as his estimated net yield of the community charge in 1990–91 and 1991–92.
§ Mr. Nicholas Bennett[holding answer 12 March 1991]: The estimated average domestic rate bill for each Welsh district authority required to give the same yield as the community charge in 1990–91 is given in the following table.
Information about community charges set and the consequent yield for 1991–92 is not yet available to the Department.
§ Mr. David Hunt[holding answer 6 March 1991]:
Economic Developments
Employment in Wales reached a record leval of 1,236,000 in June 1990 having increased by 15.2 per cent.,from 1,073,000 in June 1987.
529WReduced seasonally adjusted unemployment in Wales was reduced by 35.5 per cent., from 148,000 in June 1987 to 96,000 in January 1991.
Since 1 June 1987, a total of 411 inward investment projects have been secured for Wales reaching a record level last year. The projects promised over 46,000 new and safeguarded jobs and £2.5 billion of investment. Among the largest projects are those announced by Ford, Bosch, TSB, Toyota, National Provident Institution and British Airways.
Projects that have been helped include Bosch's £100 million project at Miskin which is expected to create more than 1,200 jobs and the British Airways aircraft maintenance project at Cardiff (Wales) airport, which is also expected to create over 1,200 jobs and provide a centre of excellence with a trained and highly skilled work force. Substantial assistance has also been provided from the regional development grant scheme which closed to new application on 31 March 1988.
Since the Cardiff Bay development corporation was established in 1987 to regenerate the former commercial centre of the city the Government have made available, or have announced, over £190 million in grant in aid to enable it to carry out its task. To date, the corporation has acquired over 600 acres of land; agreed a major redevelopment programme with the biggest private sector landowner in its area; made available a prestigious 120 acre site for business, industrial and leisure-related development, successfully relocated 60 companies within its area and undertaken a large number of infrastructure, environmental and community schemes, including agreement to a substantial contribution to the costs of the Butetown link road.
Government Programmes
Seven training and enterprise councils covering the whole of Wales have now been established.
In March 1990 a co-operation agreement was signed with Baden-Wurttemberg, one of Germany's most dynamic regions. This is providing many opportunities for Wales to benefit from industrial collaboration, inward investment and joint research.
Financial incentive schemes for industrial development and expansion have played an important role in stimulating investment, creating jobs and improving the economy of Wales. In the period since June 1987, 651 offers of regional selective assistance worth over £242 million have been accepted. Associated investment is over £2.12 billion, and nearly 35,000 new and over 11,800 safeguarded jobs are forecast to stem from this investment.
At £160 million, the Welsh Development Agency's budget for 1991–92 will be the highest ever in both cash and real terms and is well over double the 1986–87 level in cash terms.
Since 1987 the Department has committed nearly £99 million, at today's prices, to the land reclamation programme in Wales, one of the largest and most sustained programmes in Europe which will see the eradication of almost all visually intrusive dereliction by the mid-1990s. The 1990–91 budget at £24.5 million will enable work to progress on over 1,800 acres of derelict land.
Expenditure on the WDA's property development activities has also more than doubled. This has resulted in the provision of over 1 million sq ft of new factory floorspace in each of the last three years, capable of 530W accommodating up to 9,000 jobs each year. Over the same period, the private sector has also provided 715,000 sq ft of development on agency sites.
Since April 1987, urban development grant and its successor, urban investment grant, totalling £21.5 million has been approved in respect of 52 schemes. This is associated with some £87.7 million of private investment and is expected to create a total of some 3,500 permanent and 1,600 temporary jobs. In addition, around 700 residential units will be provided. In the same period £107.8 million has been allocated under the urban programme. Resources for 1991–92 total £37.9 million; this represents a 64 per cent. increase over the 1987–88 provision.
In June 1988, my right hon. Friend the Member for Worcester (Mr. Walker) launched a three-year programme of action designed to improve economic, environmental and social conditions in the south Wales valleys and in July 1989, a two-year extension of the programme was announced. On 10 December 1990, I announced an extra focus, shifting the emphasis to people and community-based activities while continuing the main elements of the programme. Expenditure on key activities involving the promotion of investment, the creation of jobs and environmental improvement in the valleys is expected to take some £800 million over five years.
Grants totalling £2.2 million have been offered to 60 winning companies under the small firms merit award for research and technology scheme.
European regional development fund (ERDF) assistance to Wales has amounted to some £108 million since 1987.
A £33 million national programme of community interest (NPCI) for Mid Glamorgan has already been successfully completed and a £108 million NPCI for Dyfed, Gwynedd and Powys was approved in 1988. Two further programmes for industrial south Wales and Clwyd were approved in 1989 and 1990 respectively and are now being implemented. The industrial south Wales programme is worth £70 million, including a transfer of some £11 million from the original amount approved for the Dyfed, Gwynedd, Powys programme, and the Clwyd programme is worth £23 million.
A RECHAR programme of over £18 million for the south Wales areas affected by the decline in the coal mining industry is currently awaiting approval from the European Commission.
A two-year enterprise and education initiative, launched in May 1988, established a network of eight advisers operating within LEA boundaries, the advisers' prime objective being to encourage their local business communities to create new or develop existing links with local educational establishments to ensure that every year 10 per cent. of teachers have the opportunity to gain some experience of the world of business; and that every young person has at least two or more weeks of work experience suited to his or her ability and needs before leaving school. The adviser contracts expire on 31 March next. They have already exceeded the targets set and have generated 20,701 pupil work experience and 2,078 teacher placements—148 per cent. and 156 per cent. of their respective targets.
Over £2 million has been made available as grant aid to support village halls and community centre projects.
531WAmgueddfa'r Gogledd, Llanberis was formally opened by the Minister of State on 14 May 1990. The national museum of Wales spent £704,000 on capital works. The museum is grant-aided by the Welsh Office.
On 1 January 1988 the designated Cambrian mountains environmentally sensitive area was extended by some 80,000 hectares and some 39,700 hectares of the Lleyn peninsula was designated as an ESA.
The scheme aims to promote the co-existence of conservation and efficient farming in areas of national environmental significance perceived to be at risk from increasingly intensive methods of production.
Grants totalling some £2.75 million have been awarded to firms in Wales for the marketing and processing of agricultural produce.
The reform of the sheepmeat regime agreed at the July 1989 Agriculture Council represented a good deal for Welsh sheep producers. The new regime provides them with a clear basis for the future and improves their competitive position with their continental counterparts and prospects for exporting.
In 1989 the Department took full advantage of devaluation of the green pound and paid the suckler cow premium at the highest permissible rate, including the maximum top-up from national funds. As a result, the rate was increased from £33.40 to £47.43 per cow, or 42 per cent. This was worth £7.7 million to producers in Wales in the 1989–90 scheme year. Furthermore, the rate for producers in the less favoured areas has been increased for 1990–91 to £51.69 in recognition of the special difficulties faced by producers raising calves or stores for further finishing in the recent marketing period.
The 1991 rates of payment were increased on average by 14 per cent., representing an additional £4.8 million to Welsh LFA producers and raising the full-year total hill livestock compensatory allowances expenditure in Wales to around £37 million.
EC approval to extend LFA in Wales by 9,300 hectares was obtained in December 1990.
Enfranchisement of the people of Caldey island has been provided by the Caldey Island Act 1990.
On 20 February 1 announced at Welsh Grand Committee the provision of £20 million of additional resources for spending in rural Wales. This is in addition to the almost £1 million a day already being spent in rural areas.
Social Policies
The Welsh language now has, for the first time, a firm statutory place in the school curriculum for pupils from 5 to 16 in Wales within the national curriculum.
The national curriculum is being introduced progressively into the schools of Wales: mathematics, science, English, Welsh and technology have already begun; history and geography will be introduced from September 1991 and art, music, physical education and modern foreign languages will follow in 1992.
I have undertaken that the national curriculum should be responsive to the distinctive history and culture of Wales: all NC documentation is being provided in Welsh and English; and separate orders will be made for history and geography in Wales to ensure that children have a proper balance of knowledge about Wales, and about the wider world.
532WAssessment will form an integral part of the national curriculum. The first national assessment of seven-year-olds at the end of key stage 1 in English, mathematics and science will be introduced at the end of the summer term 1991. Welsh and technology will follow in 1992 and thereafter other subjects and key stages as they are progressively introduced into the national curriculum.
Schemes for the local management of schools were formally approved for each of the LEAs in Wales and came into effect on 1 April 1990.
Figures published in the HMI inspectorate (Wales) review of education provision 1989–90 indicated that the number of school leavers with five or more passes at GCSE grades A to C or equivalent had increased from 26 per cent. to 30 per cent. between 1983–84 and 1989–90, while those with no qualifications had fallen from 18 per cent. to 14 per cent.
The number of students on courses of higher education in the Welsh public sector institutions has risen by 15 per cent. from 14,700 in June 1987 to 16,900 today. During the same period the number of students on courses of initial teacher training in Wales rose by 27 per cent. from 2,621 in 1987 to 3,338.
Some £8.5 million has been made available as grant aid under the voluntary aided schools building programme to support building works at voluntary-aided schools; and £13.1 million has been made available, in specific grants and grants, to local education authorities, educational and other bodies in Wales in direct support for the Welsh language. A further £6.8 million is planned for 1991–92, an increase of over 24 per cent. on the current year.
Over 68,700 home improvement grants schemes for private sector dwellings have been completed since June 1987—with a value of some £220 million. In the same period about £360 million has been spent on the renovation of local authority housing stock. More than 8,300 dwellings have been improved in Wales, under enveloping schemes involving expenditure above £62 million since 1987. Over the first two years of the valleys action programme, 5,400 homes were renovated in area-based renewal schemes—exceeding planned targets by 20 per cent. A new renovation grant regime was introduced in 1990. For the financial year 1990–91, £75 million is available to deal with the associated mandatory home renovation grants, and additional resources will be made available to district councils in Wales should that be necessary. The special funding arrangements will continue in 1991–92.
The priority estates programme has demonstrated the benefits of decentralised housing management that is responsive to the wishes of its customers. It has also put targeted capital resources to very effective use.
The Housing Options Wales (HOW) programme was launched in January 1990 to support improvements in local authority housing management, and to provide new opportunities for tenants' groups. It includes a small grants scheme to fund people and projects developing better service delivery; 17 grants have so far been awarded, including intensive training in customer care for two authorities, and all-Wales schemes designed to support improvements in local authority management performance.
The section 16 grant regime supports education and training in housing management and the development of effective tenant participation.
533WA new requirement on local authorities for their tenants has been introduced—so supplementing the enhanced rights available to council tenants under the Housing Act 1988.
For housing associations, innovative schemes of mixed funding and flexible tenure have been pursued in Wales. Over the period to 1993–94 and from Tai Cymru's inception in 1989, we plan that the total housing association stock in Wales should increase by over a third. For 1991–92 Tai Cymru's gross provision will amount to a record £117 million, which will be supplemented by additional private sector resources making the total programme worth some £160 million.
Three major hospital developments have been completed since June 1987. These are the Prince Philip hospital, Llanelli, Royal Gwent scheme 6 and a new obstetric unit at Llandough hospital.
Three all-Wales treatment centres have been established: the orthopaedic treatment centre at Prince of Wales hospital, South Glamorgan, the general surgical treatment centre (varicose veins and hernias) at Bridgend general hospital, Mid Glamorgan; and the ophthalmic treatment centre at Ysbyty Gwynedd, Gwynedd. Within the United Kingdom, treatment centres are unique to Wales and intended to offer an effective alternative method of delivering speedier health care to those suffering from key disabling conditions. The record of each centre indicates that this is the case.
Since 1979, in-patient throughput has risen to record levels, with the number of in-patients treated up by 34 per cent; new out-patients treated increased by 28 per cent.
Improvements in regional health services include the upgrading of cardiac facilities for adults and the provision of a new paediatric cardiac unit at the University hospital of Wales; a bone marrow tissue typing laboratory in Cardiff; the provision of three new subsidiary renal dialysis units at Cardiff, Merthyr and Wrexham; the procurement of three linear accelerators for Velindre hospital, Cardiff and Singleton hospital, Swansea; provision of eight computerised tomography scanners at strategic locations throughout Wales; the development of a breast screening service for women in the 60 to 64 age group throughout Wales with site work under way for the relocation of the burns, plastic and maxillo-facial surgery service to a purpose-built unit at Morriston hospital, Swansea from St. Lawrence hospital, Chepstow.
Since 1986–87, resources made available to the national health service in Wales have risen by over 25 per cent. in real terms. The service is now treating more people than ever before.
The successful introduction of general management into the NHS in Wales has been completed, and effective mechanisms for manpower resource planning, training and management have been established.
In 1988 a corporate management programme for the NHS in Wales was published. In December 1990, the programme was updated to reflect the impact of the NHS reforms, and restyled as "NHS Wales: Agenda for Action".
Also in 1988, the Welsh health planning forum was set up. In 1990 the Secretary of State endorsed its statement of "Strategic Intent and Direction for the NHS in Wales".
Substantial progress has continued under the all-Wales strategy for the development of services for people with a mental handicap. There have been significant increases in funding every year, with a record of over £26 million being 534W provided in 1990–91. The number of families receiving regular support at home has expanded considerably and by 1989–90 over 3,000 were doing so.
In June 1989 the mental illness strategy was launched to promote more responsive and locally based services for treating and supporting those suffering from mental illness. Over £2 million is being made available to support new patterns of service in 1990–91.
Significant progress has also been made under the initiative on the care of the elderly in Wales. Over 60 demonstration projects are being supported, a number of which involve partnership between statutory and voluntary sectors. Welsh Office funding of over £2 million is being made available in 1990–91.
Pembrokeshire health authority has been invited to submit a formal application to become the first NHS trust in Wales. NHS trusts are a natural element in the Government's plans for reforming the NHS and improving services to patients.
Nineteen trunk road schemes have been completed since June 1987 totalling some 42 miles. Work is in progress on a further seven schemes comprising about 18 miles. The transport grant settlement will enable work to start on the Pontypool western bypass and the lower valley relief road in 1991–92.
Steps have been taken to simplify and improve the planning system and to speed up its operation, while ensuring that it continues to protect and enhance the environment. There have been reductions in the time taken for handling inspectors' appeals of 14 weeks for inquiries, and five weeks for written representations.
A circular has been issued making it clear that the Welsh language may be a material consideration in planning matters.