Awwal 30, 1432 H/March 5, 2011, SPA -- Britain's Treasury chief on Saturday unveiled plans to invest at least 100 million pounds ($162.7 million) to kickstart growth in poor areas. The government will create at least 10 «enterprise zones» in areas considered to have high growth potential, such as northern England and the Midlands, George Osborne told a Conservative Party conference in Wales. He said the plans will offer incentives such as lower taxes and simpler planning rules in those zones in an attempt to attract businesses and create jobs. Local councils will also be allowed to keep revenue from business rates so it can be plowed back into the economy, dpa quoted Osborne as adding. The measures he outlined will be included in the upcoming U.K. budget and hark back to similar policies established under Margaret Thatcher and John Major, when 38 «enterprise zones» were created between 1981 and 1996. The Treasury chief stressed that the enterprise zones would diversify Britain's economy away from the battered financial sector and said he wanted to see a revival in the manufacturing sector. «We need other parts of Britain, and other sectors of our economy, to grow and succeed,» Osborne told the conference. «Wouldn't it be good if Britain made things again?» Osborne's announcement comes less than three weeks before the U.K. budget, which the Treasury chief said will confront the «forces of stagnation» hindering a U.K. economic recovery. Britain is facing 80 billion pounds ($130 billion) of public spending cuts by Prime Minister David Cameron's government as it struggles to get the country's big budget deficit under control.
