§ Mr. Brothertonasked the Secretary of State for the Environment (1) whether any instalments of his Department's grant of £262,000 to the Harambee Project in Islington have already been paid;
(2) what steps were taken by his Department to investigate the accounting arrangements of the Harambee Project in Islington before the decision was reached to make available to it a grant of £262,000;
(3) whether his Department has now withdrawn its grant of £262,000 to the Harambee Project in Islington.
§ Mr. Guy BarnettA proposal by Islington Borough Council to spend £52,500 a year for five years—a total of £262,500—on the running costs of the442W Harambee Project, a self-help hostel for homeless black youths, was approved for grant aid under the urban programme in June 1977. The council has since made two quarterly payments totalling £26,250 to Harambee but has recently decided to withdraw its support from the project. Under the urban programme, responsibility for selecting schemes to put forward and for making the appropriate financial arrangements to support them, if approved, rests with the local authorities concerned who must themselves find 25 per cent. of the total sums involved, urban programme grant is paid to the local authorities on any approved expenditure incurred under these arrangements. Under the standing arrangements for paying urban programme grant, local authorities receive payments mid-quarterly on the basis of estimated expenditure on all projects approved for grant. The grant payments which Islington has received this year include an element which relates to their payments to Harambee.