Catalogue description Records of the Distribution of Industry Divisions

The first serious attempt to introduce some measure of government control over the location of industry came with the appointment of commissioners for the 'special areas' under the Ministry of Labour in 1934. During the Second World War allocation of scarce factory and storage space for war production was administered by the Board of Trade's Control of Factory and Storage Premises, set up in 1940. It possessed its own regional organisation and was responsible for relocating much war production in the special areas.

The Distribution of Industry Act 1945 abolished the commissioners for the special areas, renamed the areas 'development areas' and transferred general responsibility for policy on the distribution of industry and the development areas from the Ministry of Labour and National Service to the Board of Trade. The Board of Trade was given the following responsibilities in development areas:

• Provision of premises and financial assistance for industrial undertakings
• Financial assistance to trading or industrial estate companies
• Financial assistance for improvement of basic services
• Acquisition of land and provisions for dealing with derelict land
• Payment towards the cost of removal and resettlement of key workers.

The development areas were defined in the First Schedule of the Act of 1945 but other areas were subsequently added (see, for instance, the Distribution of Industry (Development Areas) Order, 1949).

The work of administering the act was undertaken initially by the Industries and Manufactures Division, but with the vast increase in the work after the war, it became necessary, in 1946, to set up a separate division, the Distribution of Industry and Regional Division. The regional offices of the Factory and Storage Premises Control became the board's new regional organisation.

It was given further responsibilities in 1948, when the Board acquired the power to issue industrial development certificates and again in 1958 the power to make loans or grants to businessmen in the interests of reducing unemployment. From 1945 onwards a Finance Advisory Committee (frequently renamed and reconstituted) considered applications for financial assistance for companies moving to development areas.

From 1964-1965 a public sector income committee under the chairmanship of Sir Richard Clarke (2nd secretary) was set up to make financial recommendations to the government of the day. An official steering group on industrial development (SID) under a Board of Trade 2nd secretary was set up to follow through the proposed legislation. Treasury and Inland Revenue were involved. SID's purpose was to encourage capital investment in manufacturing industry a scheme of incentives was proposed by the Government in October 1965. The plan was to remove investment allowances under the taxation regime and replace it with cash grants at 20% with a supplement for the enlarged development areas. In spite of considerable problems regarding the effectiveness of the scheme, it was announced in the January 1966 White Paper, Investment Incentives (Cmnd 2874, 1966).

The Local Employment Act 1960 abolished the development areas and gave the Board of Trade power to designate any area of high and persistent unemployment a 'development district' and fresh powers to make grants to businessmen towards new buildings and equipment; the Finance Advisory Committee was reconstituted to co-ordinate policy on loans and grants to industry. Administration of investment grants under the Industrial Development Act 1966 was the responsibility of Division 3 of the General Department which later became a separate Investment Grants Division. Five local Investment Grant Offices were also opened in late 1966/early 1967. The Investment Grant Division was set up in the Board ofTrade in 1968 but in October 1969 responsibility for investment grants passed to the Ministry of Technology and a year later to the Department of Trade and Industry.

Control of office development was imposed by Part I of the Control of Office and Industrial Development Act 1965. The Act followed a White Paper of November 1964 which promised action to relieve physical congestion, secure better distribution of employment, make better use of scarce resources, provide a better environment and relieve pressure on the building industry. The Act required planning applications for office development in excess of a prescribed limit to be controlled by an Office Development Permit (ODP). This control was initially introduced as a temporary (seven year) measure and was first applied in 1964 to the London area prior to the enactment of legislation.

Following the introduction of the Act in 1965, control was applied to the Birmingham conurbation and was extended to the rest of the South-East Economic Planning Region, the East and West Midlands and East Anglia. In 1969, control was lifted from East Anglia and the rural areas of the Midlands since the demand for new offices there was insufficient to warrant its continuance. In 1970, following a change of government, the application of control was changed by excluding the rest of the Midlands.

The provisions of the 1965 Act were consolidated into the Town and Country Planning Act 1971, Sections 73-86. Powers of control were renewed for a further five years under Section 5 of the Town and Country Planning (Amendment) Act 1972 and for a further five years by the Control of Office Development Act 1977. Legislative control ended in August 1979. Meanwhile, responsibility for the exercise of control had been transferred from the Board of Trade in October 1968 to the Ministry of Housing and Local Government and in 1970 to the Department of the Environment.

In October 1969 responsibility for policy on the distribution of industry (DI), including industrial development certificates, industrial estates in development districts, building grants, loans and payments of investment grants to industry passed to the Ministry of Technology, to which the Board of Trade's Distribution of Industry and Investment Grants Divisions, regional organisation and Finance Advisory Committee were consequently transferred. In October 1970 DI became part of the newly formed Department of Trade and Industry. Control of office development was transferred to the Ministry of Housing and Local Government in England and to the secretaries of state in Scotland and Wales.

The Regional Developments Grants Division of the DTI was created in 1972 to administer the Regional Development Grants Scheme established under the Industry Act 1972 to encourage investment in assisted areas. The Regional Developments Grants Division absorbed the work of the Investment Grants Division which had been responsible for administering the Investment Grant Scheme under the Industrial Development Act 1966. The Investment Grant Scheme was wound up under the Investment and Building Grants Act 1971.

The system of regional development grants continued under the Industry Acts of 1972 and 1975 and was further enhanced by a scheme of regional selective assistance administered by the Regional Development Grants Division and its successors.