DEPRESSED AREAS

Evening Post, Volume CXXIII, Issue 51, 2 March 1937, Page 9

DEPRESSED AREAS

■NEW UNDERTAKINGS

LOANS UP TO £2,000,000

BILL TO EXTEND ACT

(British Official Wireless.) (Received March 2, 10.40 a.m.) RUGBY, March 1. ' The principal provision in the Government's proposals for the depressed areas, published tonight as a White Paper, is for a sum . not exceeding £2 5 000,000 for loans to new undertakings .on their establishment in areas already scheduled, as specially depressed or certified as needing contemplated assistance by the Ministry of Labour.' This provision follows the decision of'the Government that as a result, first, of work already done since December, 1934, to improve the position under the Special Areas Act, secondly, of the placing of Government orders and the establishment of Government factories in the areas, and thirdly of the prospective improvement of the rate position of the areas from the recent reallocation of a new formula of the Exchequer grant to local authorities, "the time has now come when, with the aid of.some financial assistance directly applied, it will be possible to introduce into the areas new industrial undertakings of a light type and thus provide more stable, becauss more diversified, employment." OTHER FACILITIES. Other measures to facilitate the establishment of .new industries in the areas for which the Government is proposing to take powers in a Bill extending the 1934 Special Areas Act from May next, when it expires, until March, 1939, include authority to the Commissioners to let factories: and to contribute for periods not exceeding five years to the income tax rates and the rent of.new undertakings established with their approval and also to contribute towards the expenses of cerfairi street works and field drainage works. The White Paper recalls that the Special Areas Act provided, for the appointment of two Commissioners for the English, Welsh, and Scottish areas respectively, charged with the initiation, organisation, and assistance of measures of economic development and social improvement. The Act also constituted a special areas, fund of £2,000,000 to finance the Commissioners' work, which was augmented by a further £3,000,000 in 1936; £3,500,003 for the fund is. included in the Estimates for 1937. ■ . . , BROADER ECONOMIC BANS. Up to the present the work of the Commissioners has been concerned both with social improvement and with the creation of conditions favouring a revival of industry and the introduction of new industries. The importance of broadening the economic basis by new industrial ventures, it is pointed out, is due to the fact that a special depression in the areas is often attributable to dependence on a, single industry in decline. The White Paper emphasises the policy of the Government to give preference to tenders received from certain scheduled areas determined on the basis of the percentage of unemployment over a period of time and including as the principal group the special areas, so-called, and mentions that between April, 1935, and November, 1936, contracts worth £41,000,000 have been placed by the Defence Departments alone in these preferential areas, of which a total, of £25,000,000 has gone to the special areas group.