§ Mr. Frank FieldTo ask the Deputy Prime Minister how much public expenditure went to each of the excluded neighbourhoods defined by the Social Exclusion Unit in the last 12 months; and what the average sum was. 167611]
§ Mr. McNultyIt is not currently possible to break down all public expenditure to a small area level such as the excluded neighbourhoods defined by the SEU. We recognise the importance of gathering this information on a national basis. We are designing mechanisms to do this and aim to take this forward through the Neighbourhood Statistics Initiative.
For the Neighbourhood Renewal programmes that are targeted on the 88 most deprived areas, the provisional outturn figure for expenditure in 2001–02 is £305.7 million. All of the £200 million provision of the Neighbourhood Renewal Fund has been issued as per Special Grant Report 78 made under Section 88a of the Local Government Finance Act 1988. On this basis the average sum spent by these programmes in each of the 88 deprived areas in 2001–02 was £3.47 million.