Poor Regions Losing on Investment

The Industrial Communities Alliance claims that some of England’s poorest regions will lost significant investment levels as a result of the Government’s decision to scrap a scheme that helps businesses create and protect jobs in less prosperous regions. The Coalition Government scrapped Grants for Business Investment which had provided nearly £430 million funds to 1,800 projects across the country protecting nearly 90,000 jobs; direct grants from the scheme amounted to £214 million. The grants were administered by the regional development agencies which are soon to be abolished, and most were directed to manufacturing companies with the objective of diversifying job creation away from financial services and the public sector. Local Enterprise Partnerships—which will replace the regional development agencies through provision of small-scale public-private links--submitted ideas for job creation schemes in the first round of grants which closed end January 2011; they amounted to over £2 billion despite only £250 million being available.

Source: The Financial Times, 31st January 2011