To ask the Chancellor of the Duchy of Lancaster if he will publish in the Official Report the amount of regional preferential assistance paid to each standard region of England, Scotland and Wales in 1986–87, identifying separately the main forms of assistance: and if he will publish equivalent data for each year since 1978–79.
[holding answer 8 March 1988] The information requested is as follows:
Government expenditure on regional preferential assistance for industry 1
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(£ millions)
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Financial year:
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Form of assistance
| Region
| 1978–79
| 1979–80
| 1980–81
| 1981–82
| 1982–83
| 1983–84
| 1984–85
| 1985–86
| 1986–87
|
| 1. Regional development grant | Northern | 135·0 | 122·4 | 117·5 | 143·9 | 127·2 | 101·3 | 89·0 | 67·3 | 102·2 |
| North West | 64·3 | 58·7 | 105·7 | 143·4 | 97·3 | 83·0 | 80·0 | 62·1 | 101·3 | |
| Yorkshire/Humberside | 30·2 | 21·5 | 38·7 | 47· 1 | 36·4 | 23·5 | 26·8 | 24·2 | 27·1 | |
| South West | 6·0 | 5·0 | 8·5 | 10·3 | 11·0 | 7·8 | 9·5 | 8·6 | 15·3 | |
| East Midlands | 2·3 | 2·4 | 3·2 | 7·2 | 8·8 | 8·2 | 3·8 | 4·4 | 8·4 | |
| West Midlands | 0·1 | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | |
| England | 238·1 | 210·0 | 273·7 | 351·9 | 280·7 | 223·8 | 209·0 | 166·6 | 254·4 | |
| Scotland | 107·3 | 70·2 | 113·3 | 142·7 | 287·3 | 143·0 | 109·0 | 107·5 | 170·5 | |
| Wales | 71·5 | 50·7 | 103·5 | 122·2 | 121·5 | 72·1 | 92·7 | 84·4 | 88·8 | |
| Great Britain2 | 416·9 | 330·9 | 490·5 | 616·8 | 689·6 | 438·9 | 410·6 | 358·5 | 513·4 | |
| 2. Selective financial assistance | Northern | 10·7 | 11·5 | 13·0 | 21·1 | 21·1 | 11·1 | 14·9 | 16·0 | 18·0 |
| North West | 40·1 | 20·6 | 15·2 | 315·7 | 18·3 | 314·7 | 11·4 | 12·7 | 18·2 | |
| Yorkshire/Humberside | 5·2 | 6·8 | 6·1 | 7·1 | 10·6 | 8·7 | 9·1 | 7·2 | 10·2 | |
| South West | 2·4 | 3·1 | 1·7 | 1·7 | 2·7 | 2·0 | 1·7 | 2·3 | 4·7 | |
| East Midlands | 0·7 | 0·9 | 0·5 | 1·0 | 4·2 | 9·4 | 6·3 | 3·9 | 2·1 | |
| West Midlands | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | 4·6 | 9·8 | |
| England | 59·1 | 42·9 | 36·5 | 46·6 | 56·9 | 45·9 | 43·5 | 46·7 | 63·0 | |
| Scotland | 12·4 | 14·0 | 21·2 | 19·0 | 20·1 | 23·9 | 29·3 | 46·9 | 35·4 | |
| Wales | 30·4 | 6·1 | 7·8 | 10·0 | 14·5 | 12·2 | 17·9 | 21·8 | 27·2 | |
| Great Britain2 | 103·4 | 78·9 | 74·0 | 75·6 | 91·5 | 82·0 | 90·7 | 115·4 | 125·6 | |
| 3. Expenditure by English estates on land and factories | Northern | 13·2 | 13·9 | 14·9 | 10·1 | 10·2 | 12·3 | 18·3 | 11·1 | 16·9 |
| North West | 9·63 | 37·4 | 9·3 | 315·7 | 38·7 | 36·5 | 10·2 | 11·1 | 9·0 | |
| Yorkshire/Humberside | 2·0 | 3·8 | 7·4 | 7·4 | 5·9 | 3·3 | 6·0 | 2·9 | 4·1 | |
| South West | 1·2 | 2·6 | 1·3 | 2·8 | 2·7 | 2·1 | 2·5 | 0·9 | 2·2 | |
| East Midlands | 0·4 | 0·8 | 0·9 | 0·4 | 0·7 | — | — | — | — | |
| West Midlands | 0·1 | 0·1 | — | — | — | — | — | 0·9 | 0·2 | |
| England | 26·5 | 28·6 | 33·9 | 36·4 | 27·7 | 24·2 | 37·0 | 26·9 | 32·4 | |
| Expenditure by Scottish and Welsh development agencies on land and factories | Scotland | 27·8 | 37·8 | 47·3 | 55·1 | 46·4 | 43·6 | 23·3 | 32·4 | 20·2 |
| Wales | 30·2 | 43·4 | 60·0 | 65·9 | 46·2 | 28·4 | 30·1 | 25·4 | 27·6 | |
| 4. Highland and Islands development board | Scotland | 6·1 | 8·5 | 11·4 | 11·8 | 15·6 | 17·3 | 22·9 | 17·9 | 15·8 |
| 5. Development board for rural Wales | Wales | — | — | — | — | — | 4·1 | 5·3 | 6·1 | 6·8 |
1 All figures are gross and include payments to nationalised industries. | ||||||||||
2 The Great Britain total for individual forms of assistance may not always equal the sum of the component parts due to the inclusion of items which cannot be allocated to regions, and because of rounding. | ||||||||||
3 Includes expenditure in Cumbria, otherwise shown within the totals for the northern region. | ||||||||||
The items included in the expenditure are: regional development grants and regional selective assistance; expenditure on land and factories by the English Industrial Estates Corporation, the Scottish and the Welsh Development Agencies; and expenditure on land and factories and grants by the Development Board for Rural Wales, and the Highlands and Islands Development Board.