Regional Policy

Part of the debate – in the House of Commons at 4:44 pm on 17 January 1985.

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Photo of Mr Norman Tebbit Mr Norman Tebbit , Chingford 4:44, 17 January 1985

I want to make it absolutely clear so that we can understand each other that there will be two policies, in effect running side by side during the transitional period. Therefore, in order to maintain expenditure at the level which had been forecast in the 1983 White Paper we have used a moratorium on the RDGs on the old system. The new system will go ahead untouched. That is the way in which we avoid the bulge of public expenditure. I can understand right hon. and hon. Gentlemen not liking it—I can understand companies not liking it—but on the other hand it may be rather more popular with taxpayers as a whole.