The Ards Borough has certainly attracted inward investment in the past as Shorts Bombardier and more recently Humax, a Korean company has chosen the Ards as an area to invest in.

  This Council has a policy of seeking actively to attract inward investment to the Borough. Through the Economic Development Section, a number of investment finding missions to the United States of America have been carried out, the latest only one month ago. A substantial number of contacts were made, especially in the Information and Communication Technology Sector. We hope to obtain positive and concrete results from this mission. While we seek to attract any investment which may be available, our current emphasis is on the IT/New Technologies area.

  We also liaise on a regular basis with the Industrial Development Board and with the local universities as they are inherent to any decision to invest in a region.

  However, the Ards Borough is facing a number of difficulties when it comes to inward investment.

  We are perceived as an affluent area and are not therefore considered as a TSN area. Only two wards were considered as deprived under the Robson Criteria: Portaferry and the Glens. This classification, it is felt, is highly detrimental to the Borough as we have numerous pockets of high deprivation which do not attract any financial incentives as they are located amidst more affluent areas. For example, the West Winds Estate in Newtownards: an area with 800 houses which recorded 25 per cent male unemployment, 55 per cent no car ownership and 76 per cent with no formal educational qualifications.

  This situation leads to the Borough offering less attractive levels of grant to potential investors and consequently less visits to the Borough. Government policy is that at least 75 per cent of IDB's effort must be targeted to TSN areas and this is reflected in very little attention to our Borough from that body. IDB's Annual Report 1998-99 shows that only 0.485 per cent of IDB's investment in Northern Ireland went to the Ards Borough in the last five years. It should be noted that the Ards Borough is the eighth largest of the Northern Ireland councils.

  This is one reason why the council has had to develop its own policy and take its own actions as far as inward investment is concerned.

  Another hurdle for the Borough is the lack of land zoned for industrial development. When the last area plan was drafted, the Council appealed against the allocation of industrial land made to the Borough, to no avail. IDB's holding of land available for leasing in the Ards Borough amounts to a mere five acres (IDB's Annual Report 1998-99). This is the smallest by far of holdings of any of our neighbouring areas and completely inadequate. There are plans to relocate one business and release its present site for use. This will leave a total of some ten acres available. Quite aside from catering for inward investment, this situation has led to the loss of a number of businesses which had to move to other areas to find room to expand.

  This also seriously restricts the number and type of industries which can be brought to the Borough.

  Despite these hurdles, the Council is still determined to attract inward investment. However, it is hoped that the Government will take these comments into consideration in the development of future policies.

26 November 1999