§ Lord Dormand of Easingtonasked Her Majesty's Government:
What incentives they provide to attract industry and services to the Northern Region.
§ Lord CheshamThe Government's prime role is to create the right economic framework within which industrial development can flourish.
Regional Selective Assistance (RSA) is the key element of central government funding for investment 90WA projects. In 1994–95, 254 offers of RSA were made with a grant value of almost £34 million, creating or safeguarding over 6,000 jobs. There is a wide range of other incentives including support for technology (SMART and SPUR schemes) and regional enterprise grants (REG). In 1994–95, there were 12 offers of SMART grants totalling £0.5 million, 7 offers of SPUR grants also totalling £0.5 million and 152 offers of REG totalling £1.6 million.
The Northern Development Company, partly funded by the Department of Trade and Industry, is mainly responsible for promoting inward investment in the North. Since 1985 the Northern Region has attracted 400 inward investment projects totalling £4 billion and creating or safeguarding in excess of 50,000 jobs.
The region also receives government assistance to stimulate regeneration and economic diversification via the single regeneration budget (SRB), urban development corporations, task forces, City Challenge, enterprise zones and European funding as follows:
The region's share of SRB funding in 1995–96 is £18 million.
Since 1987, the Tyne and Wear Development Corporation and Teesside Development Corporation have received £562 million and have together secured 30,239 jobs.
The South Tyneside Task Force and Stockton and Thornaby Task Force each have an annual budget of £1 million.
The six City Challenge partnerships (Newcastle, Middlesbrough, North Tyneside, Sunderland, Stockton and Hartlepool) will each receive a total of £37.5 million over their five-year lifespan.
The key benefits of enterprise zone status include capital allowances, simplified planning regimes and exemption from business rates. European funding totalling £242.5 million has been allocated to the region for the period 1994–96.