§ Mr. Tom Cox (Tooting)I wish to raise an issue of major importance to my constituency, which is in the London borough of Wandsworth—the local council's application for £5 million under the single regeneration budget for the development of facilities in the Tooting area. The application is supported by the Tooting town centre partnership board. I pay the warmest tribute to local councillors representing wards in the area, who fully realise the importance and need for the approval of the application and also the importance of me, as the local Member of Parliament, doing all that I can to support and highlight the application.
Tooting is one of the key centres—if not the key centre—of the borough of Wandsworth. Many aspects of Tooting have changed in the years since I first became the Member. When I first came to the House, there was only a small ethnic community. Over the years, it has greatly increased. People have come into the area from many countries. Many of them arrived with little, but by hard work and commitment they now run well-organised businesses that provide important local services not only to the people of Wandsworth but to the many people who come into the area to shop and work.
Those who work in the community provide the day-to-day services that it needs, in hospitals, other health services, social services and schools. The people of the community have built up excellent day centres through hard work and commitment. Churches are run by people from many different countries; with temples and mosques, they play a major role in our community. Many of the youngsters in our schools were born in this country, but their parents are from many overseas countries. It is always a joy to visit those schools; there one sees developments taking place that will build the sort of multiracial society that we want. We in Tooting are proud of what our local community has done and what it is committed to continue doing.
The bid to which I refer had to be submitted by June 2000 and I understand that a decision will be taken later this year. We obtained a wide range of local views, especially from young people. A large number of people are unemployed and youngsters feel that they are socially excluded; sadly, nothing is worse for the area. The views of local residents' groups were sought, because they are often concerned about the behaviour of young people. The citizens advice bureau mentioned the development of projects for young people and also for smaller groups.
The views of local church groups were sought—we all respect them for their role in the day-to-day life of our community. They made a number of important proposals, including more support for families under pressure, helping one-parent families, tackling drug abuse, offering help and information about possible careers to young people, advising on health and trying to ensure that youngsters do not fall through the net—all problems that are common in many parts of the country. I could cite the many other groups that have supported the application, which has widespread agreement.
I mentioned the changes that have taken place in the Tooting constituency. Our Asian community now comprises more than 15 per cent. of the local 32WH population, and our Afro-Caribbean community is more than 14 per cent. Other issues highlight our case. For instance, about 25 per cent. of the young unemployed people in the borough live in the area covered by the proposals contained in the single regeneration budget bid, and 36 per cent. of households with children now living in the area are on benefit—that involves about 2, 500 children.
We have a high teenage pregnancy rate and we have suffered a large increase in youth crime—something else that the budget would allow us to tackle if the bid were approved. Young people have repeatedly highlighted the need for more local recreation and leisure facilities. The exclusion rate from local schools is higher than the national average in what would be the single regeneration budget area. The drop-out rate among our Afro-Caribbean young people in business start-ups in what would be the single regeneration budget area is also very high.
I have been frank about what the local community wants and hopes to see. I have given a clear outline of the problems that we face and of how we hope to develop the central Tooting area, if we obtain the funding. The key development in the project would be a major town centre facility for young people. That is a priority and young people tell me that repeatedly. The facility would be developed in line with the views and wishes of young people. It would be attractive and comfortable and would offer access to the arts and music. It would provide advice on health, employment and training and information on the opportunities that exist in the area. There would be the full range of services that youngsters have told us that they want. We are committed to ensuring that local young people have a voice and are encouraged to make their views known. We must be in the forefront, listening to what young people want from the regeneration of Tooting. We have a large ethnic population and we want to build a community that will develop the richness of that cultural diversity.
All of us can have great ideas and hopes, but we need money. We attach great importance to local views and proposals, particularly those of young people. Young people have much to offer but they can, sadly, be turned off if they see no developments. That is why the bid is so important. We want to keep alive the interest and the culture of young people and provide a modern centre for them. We must encourage young people to start up new businesses, creating work for other young people in the area. That would create a sense of pride in their role in building up the local economy.
In Tooting and throughout the borough of Wandsworth, local councillors and local people want the project to succeed, which is why I, the local Member of Parliament, sought this debate. We look to the Government to support the project and we are in no doubt that we have presented an outstanding case. I hope that the Minister will confirm today the Government's support for our application for £5 million from the single regeneration budget. Then, we can tackle issues such as unemployment and how to get people off benefit, reducing the rates of teenage pregnancy, combating crime and getting more young people into business start-ups.
33WH Getting people back into work has been one of the Government's outstanding successes. The money saved by doing so is important, but it is even more important that people should have pride in their jobs and in their local area. We must bring hope and opportunity to the area and its people. That is what we hope to achieve by applying for funding from the single regeneration budget. I look to the Government, in conjunction with the Government office for London, to support the project. My constituents, whom I am proud to represent, need the project.
I ask the Minister to give urgent attention to the following two matters. First, Gatton Road school, in the heart of Tooting, is now closed and to be sold, but was once used for other purposes within the community. I walked around that school at the weekend; it is on a site of 1.2 acres and amounts to 36, 000 sq ft, and could be the ideal centre for the sort of project that my constituents, the local councillors and I want to be developed. I ask the Minister to contact Wandsworth council about that possible sale—not next week or next month, but in the next day or two. There is an enormous "for sale" board outside the school and I hope that she and her officials will find out why it is being put on the market when, in the view of many local people, it could be used for the sort of project that I am supporting today.
I will give the Minister a copy of the letter sent to me by Councillor Pam Taplow, one of the local councillors for the area. She says that, at the July meeting of Wandsworth council, cuts were announced of more than £180, 000 from the youth service budget. I hope that she and her officials will take the matter up with Wandsworth council and find out why such a thing is happening when we are seeking money from the single regeneration budget. I have here some of the attractive publicity material that the borough of Wandsworth has put together so well. The headings are "Youth is the key" and "Green light for £5m Tooting bid".
I hope that the Minister will be forthcoming in her response and tell me that the Government intend to support the bid. However, I also ask her to take up the two matters that I have just raised—the selling of the school and the cut of £180, 000 from the youth service budget—with the officials of the borough of Wandsworth.
Finally, my comments show that I fully support the bid. I want it to succeed, as do local councillors in that area and the people whom I am proud to represent. I hope that, after her response, my constituents and I will feel that we are on the way to winning the money because we have the full support of the Government. We need it for the benefit of the area and community and, especially, for the benefit of young local people.
§ The Parliamentary Under—Secretary of State for the Environment, Transport and the Regions (Ms Beverley Hughes)First, I congratulate the hon. Member for Tooting (Mr. Cox) on securing this debate on such an important issue for his constituency. He has spoken of the contribution made by all the people of Tooting to the well-being and richness of that community and I applaud the way in which he celebrated its diversity. He also clearly outlined some of the needs that people in 34WH Tooting continue to face. He conveyed his message with genuine commitment and feeling for the people whom he represents.
The Government view the single regeneration budget programme as an important instrument in our drive to tackle social exclusion and create equality of opportunity. By reducing the gap between deprived and other areas and between different groups, we want to improve the quality of life of local people, especially in areas in need. That includes the important issue of tackling the disadvantage undoubtedly still experienced by people in this country's minority ethnic communities.
I am sure that my hon. Friend will be aware of the considerable benefits that have accrued to London boroughs through the SRB programme. The first five rounds of SRB in London have resulted in 197 successful schemes, which have attracted £1.2 billion of Government funding in their lifetime. Those schemes are expected to lever in a further £2.2 billion of private investment, creating or safeguarding around 186, 000 jobs and establishing many thousands of new businesses. The SRB programme is clearly designed to try to achieve what my hon. Friend seeks in Tooting.
Four schemes have been under way in the London borough of Wandsworth, with Government funding of £22.5 million. The largest of them is the transformation of Wandsworth's town centre, which has focused on the Arndale centre—a large new shopping centre below an estate of high-rise council dwellings. The scheme is successfully improving the area's commercial, housing and social problems. Wandsworth is also involved with adjacent boroughs in four other schemes and in some pan-London schemes. The SRB has clearly made a significant contribution to London as a whole and especially to Wandsworth.
I shall explain to my hon. Friend this year's decision-making process on round 6 of SRB, as it is important to his point. SRB round 6 was launched at the end of last year and is expected to provide an additional £300 million for London in the next seven years. Its main objectives are to support and promote growth in local economies and businesses, to enhance the employment prospects, education and skills of local people, to tackle social exclusion and enhance opportunities for disadvantaged people, to promote sustainable regeneration, and to tackle crime and drug abuse and improve community safety. We injected extra funding into the SRB scheme nationally. We modified the framework to give greater clarity to bidders and to secure the greater community involvement that my hon. Friend says is such a strong feature of Tooting's bid.
Partnerships were invited to submit expressions of interest to the Government office for London in March. As my hon. Friend said, one of them was the scheme proposed by Wandsworth borough council, which aimed to support and involve young people in Tooting. Officials concluded that the proposals supported the objectives identified by the social exclusion unit in its "Bringing Britain Together" report. Tooting is also one of London's 68 priority community regeneration areas—identified as being the capital's focal points of need and deprivation. The Government office for London therefore encouraged Wandsworth to submit a bid on the basis of the expression of interest.
35WH As my hon. Friend will be aware, the delegation to the mayor of London came into effect recently, on 3 July. With that transfer, responsibility for the approval of London SRB round 6 bids has passed to the mayor. It is his responsibility to decide how the money in SRB round 6 will be allocated across the submitted bids. The London development agency now exercises the day-to-day management of the SRB programme on his behalf. The Secretary of State's functions of giving guidance or directions to the agency are also now exercised by the mayor. In relation to London, Ministers have no further role in directing or giving guidance to the LDA. The mayor will be making the decisions.
My fellow Ministers and I have a legitimate interest in ensuring that the delegated functions are exercised by the mayor in accordance with the conditions of those delegations. If, at any time, the mayor or the LDA did not comply with the terms of delegations, Ministers would have the power to intervene, but only by revoking the whole of the delegated function. I have provided a fairly detailed explanation so that my hon. Friend will understand that decision making about allocation of resources under SRB 6 rests wholly with the mayor of London.
My officials made inquiries in the light of the Adjournment debate and I now understand that the Tooting bid was submitted and is being assessed along with the other London bids by the LDA, which will advise the mayor. I am told that the mayor will make his final decisions on the successful schemes at the end of this month. I hope that my hon. Friend will appreciate that although I cannot comment on the eligibility of the bid, which is a decision for the mayor, I shall try to respond to his points.
The bid for funding, which my hon. Friend outlined in relation to the Tooting submission, involves a number of key projects: training in information and communication technology through a learning matrix, which is very important; additional support for young learners to provide progression routes to further and higher education, which, as he outlined, is an important mechanism in trying to ensure that young people raise their capacity to obtain employment; involving businesses in providing work opportunities; involving families in education by providing family and community learning support; encouraging youth participation in community projects and volunteering; working with young people at risk of offending, to reduce youth crime and try to prevent their route into criminal activity, which would clearly be to their great disadvantage; providing facilities for young people in sport and cultural activities; encouraging young people to start up businesses; providing support for young people with mental health problems; and preventing drug abuse.
A strong feature of the bid—which the Government are supporting in SRB bids in the rest of the country, where we are making decisions—is the extent to which young people and those from ethnic minority groups have been involved from the outset in building up the bids, setting the priorities and trying to define some of 36WH the solutions, in terms of the projects specified for tackling some of the difficulties and problems that those young people face.
In other parts of the country, we have made it clear that we want more bids to focus on ethnic minority communities and their groups—they should be lead partners rather than merely the recipients of projects administered and managed by other people. My hon. Friend will be interested to know that I am discussing with other regional development agencies their submissions and I am making the point strongly that the Government feel that minority ethnic communities have not been sufficiently represented so far. The SRB bids that we will approve will require more focus on their needs. I have no reason to suppose that that will not also be an important focus and criterion for the mayor of London when he decides on bids from London authorities. In areas such as Tooting, where ethnic minority populations are concentrated, it is important that those people engage in the regeneration process and are involved in developing and delivering the bids and ensuring that the outcomes meet their needs. I was pleased that a combination of methods was used to get young ethnic minority people in Tooting involved in the regeneration process that has led to the bid. I am sure that that is a great strength.
My hon. Friend raised two specific issues: the school that has been closed and Wandsworth's budget. I shall ask my officials to look into the question of the school, which is a matter of local democratic decision making. If, after consultation, Wandsworth council decides to go ahead with the sale, and does so in an appropriate and legal manner, Ministers have no power to intervene in the process. However, I understand my hon. Friend's point about the school being an asset that, if the SRB bid is successful, could be used as a centre to support the project. We cannot deter Wandsworth, but I shall certainly instruct my officials to speak to the council on the matter and check that they have taken cognisance of my hon. Friend's point, which is sound and valid.
The council's budget is also set democratically and I cannot intervene to tell Wandsworth to revise it. I accept my hon. Friend's point that it would not look good if Wandsworth were the lead partner in a bid for additional Government money to develop services for young people while at the same time—according to his information—taking money out of its own budget. When the mayor considers the bid, he may want Wandsworth to explain that matter, in terms of deciding on the allocation of money. I hope that Wandsworth council will take that on board.
I regret that I cannot assist my hon. Friend directly, as the power to make such decisions now rests not with Ministers but with the mayor. However, my hon. Friend has fulfilled an important function on behalf of his constituency by raising the issue and hearing my remarks on the strength of the bid. I hope that he will make representations to the mayor before the end of the month.
§ Mr. Roger Gale (in the Chair)Order. As the Member sponsoring the debate and the Minister are both present, we can move on to the third and final half-hour debate.