asked the Secretary of Stale for Industry what is the total cost of help being given by his Department to private industry in the United Kingdom, the north-west and in north-east Lancashire, respectively; and how many jobs these grants are helping to maintain in each case.
, pursuant to his reply [Official Report, 2nd August 1978], gave the following information:Since the Industry Act 1972 came into operation, assistance of £1,257 million has been offered for 6,151 projects in the United Kingdom under sections 7 and 8. Of this, £136·5 million has been offered for projects in the north-west region and £8·4 million for projects in north-east Lancashire. Jobs created or maintained by section 7 assistance total 417,000 in the United Kingdom, 115,000 in the north-west region and 10,200 in northeast Lancashire. Regional development grant payments have totalled £1,454 million for the United Kingdom and £210 million for the north-west region. The amount of regional development grant paid to firms in north-east Lancashire is not readily available: nor is the precise number of jobs created or maintained by regional development grants or section 8 assistance since these are not directly job linked.
| (a) ASSISTANCE OFFERED IN RESPECT OF ITS STATUS AS AN INTERMEDIATE AREA | ||||||
| (Section 7 assistance) | ||||||
| Calendar year | No. of projects | Assistance £M | Estimated jobs to be created within 5 years of start of project | Estimated jobs to be safeguarded | ||
| 1973 | … | … | 6 | 0·4 | 632 | — |
| 1974 | … | … | 5 | 0·9 | 448 | 300 |
| 1975 | … | … | 10 | 0·4 | 435 | 149 |
| 1976 | … | … | 8 | 0·6 | 557 | — |
| 1977 | … | … | 16 | 0·3 | 289 | — |
| Totals: | … | … | 45 | 2·6 | 2,361 | 449 |
| (b) SECTION 8 ASSISTANCE | ||||||
| Calendar year | No. of projects | Assistance | ||||
| 1975 | … | … | … | … | 1 | £204,579 |
| 1976 | … | … | … | … | 1 | £ 13,716 |
| 1977 | … | … | … | … | 3 | £ 47,394 |
| Totals: | … | … | … | … | 5 | £265,689 |