HC Deb 30 January 1996 vol 270 cc761-2
3. Mr. Bill Michie

To ask the Secretary of State for the Environment what plans he has to extend the city pride initiative to more cities. [10370]

The Minister for Construction, Planning and Energy Efficiency (Mr. Robert B. Jones)

Birmingham, Manchester and London are making excellent progress in carrying forward their city pride prospectuses. We shall look at what they have achieved before extending the initiative. Meanwhile, there is nothing to stop other cities adopting a city pride approach and I am pleased that Sheffield is doing so.

Mr. Michie

I am interested in that reply because it appears that the Government do not intend to extend the scheme. We must bear it in mind that most towns and cities have pride. Why must they wait for some sort of lottery, which is governed totally by the Tories at Westminster, before they get the resources that they require? Is not the best and most logical way to allocate resources to establish a proper regeneration programme for all cities and towns and to stop messing about with Government diktats?

Mr. Jones

I am sure that the hon. Gentleman would be one of the first to recognise that pride is not restricted to one, two or three cities and is felt throughout the country. However, putting a specific programme in place is a different matter. We are assessing what has happened in the first three cities. The single regeneration budget has benefited enormously not only Sheffield, which receives some £200 million from the private and public sectors as a result of its two successful bids, but rural and suburban areas that have responded well to problems.

Mr. John Marshall

Does my hon. Friend agree that city pride can work only with efficient local government? Has he read the report in today's Evening Standard that Hackney had a policy, which cost the ratepayers £2 million, to employ officials to do nothing? Is he aware of what is happening in Lambeth, where corruption is rife and the council is renowned for its sheer damned inefficiency?

Mr. Jones

My hon. Friend is absolutely right. The records of Lambeth and of Hackney, and indeed of Walsall, mean that the alternative to the Government's city pride programme would be Labour's city shame.