Draft proposals the Department of Trade and Industry has published will automatically disqualify six parts of Britain from regional aid under new European Union (EU) guidelines.
They include Edinburgh and West Lothian, south Manchester, Lowestoft, in East Anglia and Brighton & Hove.
Others, such as Lancaster, the Scottish borders, west Sheffield and Folkestone and Dover, will be removed from the list in a cull of less needy districts as would parts of South Yorkshire and Merseyside, previously 100% assisted area.
Cornwall and the Scilly Isles, West Wales and the Valleys and the Scottish Highlands and Islands will remain on the list. Northern Ireland will also continue to be an assisted area.
Other deprived areas will continue to qualify because of low employment, poor skills, high rates of incapacity benefit claimants or low manufacturing share of employment.
Pockets of areas further south will remain assisted areas. The changes come because of the widening of the EU.
References: Financial Times 11/07/07 page 3, The Independent 11/07/07 page 36
