HC Deb 13 January 1994 vol 235 cc252-4W
Mr. Streeter

To ask the President of the Board of Trade if he is yet able to inform the House of the final outcome of the negotiations with the European Communities on the designation under the structural funds of objective 2 and 5(b) areas.

Mr. Sainsbury

The Commission announced on 21 December its proposed list of areas for objective 2 and the proposed population ceilings for objective 5(b).

For objective 5(b) areas, the Commission proposes to designate areas with a population coverage of 2.816 million in the United Kingdom. The precise geographical boundaries are expected to be finally determined by the Commission by the end of next week, but will certainly include large parts of South West England, East Anglia, Northern England, Wales and Scotland. Once the Commission's final decision is known I will provide the House with a list of the areas.

For objective 2 areas, the Commission announced a proposed initial list of areas. The United Kingdom area on this list are listed at the end of this answer. The Commission will announce its final decision shortly, but it is unlikely to differ from the initial list. The definitive list will be published in the Official Journal and will give a fully detailed breakdown of the eligible areas, down to ward level where necessary.

The Commission's decisions mean that more areas of the United Kingdom than before will now be eligible for European funding. More than 24 million people live in areas that will be able to claim under objectives 1, 2 and 5(b) of the structural funds and the United Kingdom continues to have the highest population coverage under objective 2. Despite this advance, however, the Government regret the Commission's failure fully to reflect our national priorities in its final decisions for objective 2 areas—in particular, the case for much greater coverage of urban areas.

United Kingdom areas on Commission's list for objective 2 County/Region and Eligible travel-to-work area (TTWA) Central

  • Alloa (part)
  • Falkirk (part)
  • Glasgow (part)
  • Stirling (part1)
Cheshire
  • Liverpool (part)
  • Widnes and Runcorn
  • Wirral and Chester (part1)
Cleveland
  • Whole county
Cumbria
  • Barrow-in-Furness
  • Whitehaven
  • Workington
Derbyshire
  • Chesterfield
  • Mansfield (part)
  • Worksop (part)
Devon
  • Plymouth (part1)
Durham
  • Bishop Aukland
  • Darlington (part1)
  • Durham
  • Hartlepool (part)
  • Newcastle-upon-Tyne (part)
  • Sunderland (part)
Dyfed
  • Llanelli
  • Swansea (part)
Fife
  • Alloa (part)
  • Dundee (part)
  • Dunfermline (part)
  • Kirkaldy
Gibraltar
  • Whole territory
Greater London
  • London (parts of the Boroughs of Enfield, Hackney, Haringey, Newham, Tower Hamlets and Waltham Forest)
Greater Manchester
  • Bolton and Bury (part)
  • Manchester (part1)
  • Oldham
  • Rochdale (part)
  • Wigan and St. Helens (part)
Gwent
  • Blaenau Gwent and Abergavenney (part)
  • Merthyr and Rhymney (part)
  • Newport
  • Pontypool and Cwmbran
Humberside
  • Doncaster (part)
  • Grimsby (part)
  • Hull (part1)
  • Scunthorpe (part)
Kent
  • Thanet
Lancashire
  • Accrington and Rossendale
  • Blackburn
  • Bolton and Bury (part)
  • Burnley (part1)
  • Liverpool (part1)
  • Pendle (part1)
  • Rochdale (part)
  • Wigan and St. Helens (part1)
Lothian
  • Bathgate
  • Edinburgh (part1)
  • Falkirk (part)
Mid Glamorgan
  • whole county
Northumberland
  • Alnwick and Amble (part1)
  • Morpeth and Ashington
  • Newcastle-upon-Tyne (part1)
Nottinghamshire
  • Mansfield (part)
  • Nottingham (part1)
  • Worksop (part)
Powys
  • Aberdare (part)
  • Swansea (part)
Shropshire
  • Telford and Bridgnorth (part1)
  • Wolverhampton (part)
South Glamorgan
  • Cardiff (part1)
South Yorkshire
  • whole county
Staffordshire
  • Birmingham (part1)
  • Burton-on-Trent (part1)
  • Stafford (part1)
  • Stoke (part1)
  • Walsall (part1)
  • Wolverhampton (part1)
Strathclyde
  • Ayr
  • Cumnock and Sanquhar (part)
  • Dumbarton
  • Girvan
  • Glasgow (part)
  • Greenock
  • Irvine (part1)
  • Kilmarnock
  • Lanarkshire
Tayside
  • Arbroath
  • Dundee (part)
  • Dunfermline (part)
Tyne and Wear
  • whole county
Warwickshire
  • Birmingham (part1
  • Coventry and Hinckley (part1)
West Glamorgan
  • whole county
West Midlands
  • Birmingham (part1)
  • Coventry and Hinckley (part)
  • Dudley and Sandwell (part)
  • Walsall (part)
  • Wolverhampton (part)
West Yorkshire
  • Bradford (part1)
  • Castleford and Pontefract (part)
  • Wakefield and Dewsbury
1 Denotes those areas where only part of the TTWA within the county-region is designated. Elsewhere the designation of part of a TTWA refers to the whole of the part of the TTWA falling within that county-region. Note that many TTWAs straddle county-region boundaries.