§ Mr. Steenasked the Secretary of State for the Environment which parts of the Wirral have an inner area programme.
§ Mr. FreesonThe Wirral Metropolitan Borough Council intends in the first instance to concentrate on the inner area of Wallasey and Birkenhead on the east side of the borough stretching from New Brighton to Rock Ferry.
§ Mr. Steenasked the Secretary of State for the Environment if he will give details of those inner area programmes in the Wirral, specifying the nature of the programmes 118W and the level of Government assistance to each.
Mr. FresonWirral is one of the 15 non-partnership authorities which have been invited to draw up comprehensive programmes of action for tackling the problems of their inner areas. They can expect to benefit from the new priority being given to such areas in main spending programmes and have already benefited in this way through the cash allocations made under the housing investment programme system for 1978–79 and through additional sums made available for construction works. Along with others, Wirral will gain extra powers to assist with industrial regeneration under the Inner Urban Areas Bill, and it can expect to receive an allocation from the urban aid programme of about £1½ million per year between 1979–80 and 1981–82.
§ Mr. Steenasked the Secretary of State for the Environmment what are the differences in strategy between the Wirral inner area programme and the inner area programme for Liverpool.
§ Mr. FreesonIt is too early to say what differences of approach might emerge in these programmes.
§ Mr. Steenasked the Secretary of State for the Environment how the inner area programme for the Wirral relates to the comprehensive community programme already announced for that area.
§ Mr. FreesonIn preparing its inner area programme, Wirral has drawn on earlier work carried out in the context of proposals for a comprehensive community programme, which has not been pursued as such.