Regional Assistance, Merseyside (Hansard, 12 March 1992)

§ Mr. Leigh

Financial regional assistance paid to companies on Merseyside is as follows:

	Manufacturing industry	Services
1978	24.8	0.5
1979	12.2	0.5
1980	6.1	0.5
1981	5.3	0.5
1982	5.2	0.5
1983	4.5	0.5
1984	6.2	0.5
1985	7.7	0.3
1986	11.1	1.8
1987	15.5	2.1
1988	30.0	2.7
1989	21.7	3.4
1990	18.9	1.9
1991	16.0	1.9

Manufacturing industry has been defined as division 2—excluding classes 21 and 23—3 and 4 of the standard industrial classification revised 1980.

Figures include expenditure on regional selective assistance; the revised regional development grants scheme which started in November 1984 and closed to new applications in March 1988 and the regional enterprise grants scheme which started in April 1988.

Grant was also paid to companies on Merseyside under the original regional development grants scheme which closed in November 1984. Information about that scheme was never recorded on a computerised data base and therefore unless the information has already been published it is available only at disproportionate cost. Published information on the scheme included a regional analysis which showed inter alia the amount of grant paid to companies in the north-west of England. For comparison purposes grant paid to those companies with projects in the north-west from 1977–78 was:

Year	£ million
1977–78	49.8
1978–79	64.3
1979–80	58.7
1980–81	105.7
1981–82	143.4
1982–83	97.3
1983–84	83.0
1984–85	79.9
1985–86	56.5
1986–87	82.9
1987–88	22.6
1988–89	4.9
1989–90	1.7
1990–91	1.2

Services are defined as divisions 6, 7, 8 and 9 of the standard industrial classification revised 1980.

Figures include expenditure on regional selective assistance; office and service industries scheme which closed to new applications in November 1984; the revised regional development grants scheme and regional enterprise grants.