£100 million job grants likely to stay in regions Available to Purchase

An unusual appetite for eating their own words, a peculiar pastime for politicians, is being displayed by Government ministers. And this healthy predilection for changing course if economic and political circumstances demand a ‘re‐think’ has raised hopes among Labour MPs from the regions—worried about soaring unemployment and anxiously awaiting the results of the Cabinet's review of development area policy—that the regional employment premium REP might be saved. The premium was introduced by the Wilson Government in the budget of 1967. It is paid at the rate of £150 a week for every man employed full‐time in manufacturing industry in the development areas; 75p for women and boys, and just under 50p for girls. It is currently costing £108 million a year and the Government is pledged to keep on paying it until 1974, despite the fact that ministers describe it as a ‘nonsense’ and an extremely wasteful form of subsidy.