§ Mr. Cryerasked the Secretary of State for the Environment if he will list the criteria and allocation of the additional urban programme money for each authority of the £70 million announced at the beginning of April.
§ Mr. KingGuidance notes on the new arrangements will be issued soon. Bids for assistance will be competitive against the total resources available. I hope to make decisions on the bids received within three months of the closing date for applications, due in September.
§ Mr. Cryerasked the Secretary of State for the Environment what are the criteria on which urban programme money is allocated between programme and partnership authorities and urban development corporations and other authorities designated under the Inner Urban Areas Act 1978.
§ Mr. KingThere are no simple criteria on which we base resource allocations to local authorities under the urban programme, but we take account of such factors as the scale, concentration and nature of the problems in the areas concerned, the quality of authorities' proposals for tackling those problems, and their performance in previous years. Resources for urban development corporations, which do not form part of the urban programme, are allocated separately taking account of the corporations' proposals for dealing with the severe problems they face in securing the regeneration of their areas.