HC Deb 13 March 1991 vol 187 c539W
Mr. Trotter

To ask the Secretary of State for Trade and Industry how much has been spent by his Department in supporting regional promotion in the Northern region in each year since 1983.

Mr. Leigh

Grant payments to regional development organisations in the Northern region are shown in the table. Additionally, the DTI has a national promotion and publicity budget from which the region benefits and regional promotion is encouraged through support to various outside bodies and agencies. It is not possible to provide figures for this expenditure on a regional basis.

£ thousand
1982–83 250
1983–84 850
1984–85 975
1985–86 760
1986–87 1,068
1987–88 1,108
1988–89 1,135
1989–90 981

Mr. Trotter

To ask the Secretary of State for Trade and Industry how much regional aid has been spent on the Northern region since June 1983; and how many jobs have been created or safeguarded.

Mr. Leigh

Since the beginning of the financial year 1983–84 to end March 1990, £844.1 million was spent by my Department on regional aid in the Northern region. The schemes that contributed to that expenditure were: original and revised regional development grants; regional selective assistance; capital spend by the English Industrial Estates Corporation and, from 1988–89, expenditure under regional enterprise grants.

Over the same period in the Northern region, in gross terms, some 68,000 jobs were created or safeguarded by projects for which offers of regional selective assistance were made and a further 13,000 jobs were created in projects for which payments were made under the revised regional development grants scheme.

In addition, the Government have directly assisted job creation and safeguarding through their inner-city task forces and urban programmes in the region and through the employment measures of the Department of Employment.

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