Part of the debate – in the House of Commons am 12:00 am ar 21 Rhagfyr 1973.
That is exactly the reason for regional strategies, to take an overall picture and to set targets for the future. In answering the hon. Gentleman, I was showing the aid which has been given up to the present. He cannot say that we have not in the past recognised the needs of the North-West Region. We have recognised those needs with some success, indicated by the figures which I gave on reduction of unemployment between 1972 and the present. The success is shown also by the fact that notified vacancies have risen almost two and a half times, from 16,400 in November 1972 to 40,800 in November 1973. Taking Oldham alone, unemployment has been almost halved over the past year from 3·1 per cent. in November 1972 to 1·6 per cent. in November 1973, which is well below the national average.
This is not piecemeal assistance. It may be assistance in a number of forms, but surely flexibility is needed in the forms of assistance to be given to an area. The same encouraging picture emerges from figures for selective financial assistance. Under the Industry Act up to the end of October last the offers of assistance totalling £7·5 million had been made in respect of 106 applications which were expected to result in creating or safeguarding over 8,000 jobs in the Northwest.
There is a similar story on industrial development certificates. In the year ended November 1973, 266 IDCs were granted for an area of 13½ million sq. ft., with estimated additional employment of nearly 18,000. That was about 3½ million sq. ft. more than in 1972. Also in the past year there have been 815 inquiries about industrial locations in the region, an increase of over 400 on the previous year. This shows an increasing interest in the region among industrialists. There has been help to service industries, provided that their move there would create at least 10 new jobs in the area. This has been a great help both in the south of the region, on Merseyside and in Manchester, as well as in the north. By these various means, which the hon. Gentleman calls piecemeal and which I say are flexible means of assisting an area, we have given real assistance to the North-West. To select for test those items which do not relate to all the factors affecting the quality of life, and merely to restrict oneself to narrow subjects, totting them up in order to say that the North-West is top or bottom of the league, or to say that the North-West is the worst served region, is not to make a true analysis of the position.
I take, for example, the suggestion that the North-West is worst in dereliction. The amount spent in the North-West on clearing up derelict land is greater than that spent in any other region. It starts off with a larger problem, and so the expenditure on it should be greater.