§ Lord Smith of Leighasked Her Majesty's Government:
Whether they intend to deal with the economic and social consequences of foot and mouth disease in areas like Cumbria by using resources from existing Objective 2 allocations for 2000–06 or by applying for new resources from the European Union. [HL1636]
§ Lord WhittyThe Objective 2 Programmes for England have recently been formally approved by the European Commission. Within the approved framework, individual programmes have flexibility to respond to foot and mouth in the way most appropriate for their region.
The North West Programme Monitoring/Regional Committee met on 30 March 2001. It delegated authority to the European Programme Secretariat to enable it to deal with an accelerated application for £1 million European Regional Development Fund (ERDF) to match North West Development Agency funding for business support measures to assist the rural and tourism sectors. That application is in full compliance with the eligibility rules under the programme. It has now been submitted by the NWDA and an offer has been issued by the Secretariat.
Under that project, business support agencies can obtain additional funding for an enhanced service to those sectors in the North West hit particularly hard by the drop in tourism and rural business.