§ 31. Mr Chapmanasked the Secretary of State for the Environment what help his Department provides, directly or indirectly, to encourage the art of architecture and to improve the quality of the built environment.
§ Sir George YoungGiven the Department's wide-ranging responsibility for the construction industry and the building professions, very many of our policies and initiatives aim to encourage the art of architecture and to improve the quality of the built environment. Our recent promotion of architectural competitions—both through PSA and other clients in the private as well as the public sectors—is designed as part of the more general initiative to encourage more enlightened patronage of new buildings and renovation work. Many major schemes to preserve and improve the quality of the built environment have received significant financial assistance through our programmes of inner city and urban aid and through the £12.9 million we provided in 1981–82 in grants for historic buildings and urban conservation.