§ Mr. BeithTo ask the Secretary of State for Education and Employment how much is deducted from the budget of Northumberland county council for the funding of learning and skills councils; and what his estimate is of the amount of these funds which will be returned to Northumberland county council or otherwise disbursed within the county of Northumberland. [147161]
§ Mr. WicksThere has been no deduction made from the budget of Northumberland county council: its Education SSA will rise by £4.75 million to £139.66 million, an increase of some 3.75 per cent. for 2001–02. From 2000–01 to 2001–02 total funding for education in Northumberland increased by 5.69 per cent. We estimate that Northumberland's share of direct grant in 2001–02 will be £5.09 million. My right hon. Friend the Secretary of State announced on 29 January that he would be making available an extra £52 million in grant to authorities with lower than average increases in their Standard Spending Assessment (SSA) in 2001–02, and who face pressures from the change of responsibility for adult education to the Learning and Skills Council from April. Northumberland local education authority's share of the additional grant will be £1.35 million.
The £142 million being allocated via the Learning and Skills Council means that all authorities have an increase of some 6 per cent. on what they are spending on Adult and Community Learning in 2000–01. For Northumberland, with current spend of £92,000, the provisional Learning and Skills Council allocation for 2001–02 is £98,000.
Within the county of Northumberland, Wansbeck local authority has been allocated £3.1 million over the next three years from the Neighbourhood Renewal Fund distributed by the Department of the Environment, Transport and the Regions.