§ Mr. Heddleasked the Secretary of State for the Environment if he is satisfied that there is sufficient private enterprise and voluntary organisation involvement in the work of the partnership committees.
§ Mr. KingWe have told partnership authorities that their inner area programmes will not be approved if there has not been adequate consultation with the private sector. We have also said that the voluntary sector should also be consulted. This should secure adequate involvement, where it has been missing hitherto.
§ Mr. Heddleasked the Secretary of State for the Environment if he is satisfied with the operation of the partnership authorities.
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§ Mr. KingRecent steps that we have taken to simplify procedures in partnership authorities and the guidelines on the form and content of inner area programmes sent to the authorities in July 1981 have improved their operation and performance. Naturally, we are always seeking further improvements.
§ Mr. Heddleasked the Secretary of State for the Environment how much money is to be spent by the partnership authorities in 1982–83.
§ Mr. KingThe total allocation to partnerships under the urban programme, to which I take it my hon. Friend is referring, for 1982–83 is £137 million. In addition, some of these authorities may receive a share of the £5 million urban programme resources that my right hon. Friend announced on 9 December 1981 that he had earmarked for low cost home ownership initiatives.—[Vol. 14, c. 865–74.]
§ Mr. Heddleasked the Secretary of State for the Environment when he expects to be able to publish the results of his Department's monitoring of the work of the partnership authorities.
§ Mr. KingPartnership authorities are encouraged to publish their annual inner area programmes, and to include in them a review of what their programmes have achieved, including details of particularly interesting projects. The Department published last year a brochure called "Partnerships at Work", copies of which are in the Library.
For the future, the Department is to undertake monitoring of a sample of projects in partnership inner area programmes approved under the guidelines issued to local authorities on 6 July 1981. The guidelines relate to 1982–83 programmes and monitoring will take place as projects in their programmes are implemented, from April 1982 onwards. At present, I have no plans to publish the results of this monitoring.