§ Mr. Freesonasked the Paymaster General if he will give details of the work of the interdepartmental task forces established in 1986 in eight small city areas.
§ Mr. Kenneth ClarkeThe task forces were set up under the Government's inner cities initiative. The aim of the initiative is to improve the quality of life and bring jobs to the most deprived areas by improving the targeting of the Government's national programmes on to those areas and to experiment with new methods of extending those programmes using an £8 million a year top-up fund. The task forces comprise of a small number of civil servants and private sector secondees in offices in the districts they serve. They seek to establish good relations with the residents of the district and to involve those residents in plans for the revival of their areas.
So far I have approved 100 projects committing more than £4.9 million of these top-up resources in our task force areas. These will encourage enterprise training and job creation. We have also concentrated the efforts and programmes of the Manpower Services Commission and other Government Departments on the eight areas and their residents. We are establishing enterprise agencies and development funds to support local business in partnership with a clearing bank in each district. We are making progress on the greater use of local labour on inner city building work and on targeted training schemes which link training with specific job opportunities for local people. We are entering into projects in partnership with private sector companies such as Tarmac and McAlpine and we are involving existing organisations with experience in the field or strong local connections such as, Business in the Community, Project Fullemploy, Action Resource Centre, Evangelical Alliance, NACRO, the Industrial Society, the Apex Trust and others in pursuing the aims of the initiative.
§ Mr. Freesonasked the Paymaster General if he will give details of the work of the city action teams in (a) Hackney, (b) Islington and Lambeth, (c) Newcastle-Gateshead, (d) Liverpool, (e) Manchester-Salford and (f) Birmingham since their establishment.
§ Mr. Kenneth ClarkeFive city action teams were set up in April 1985. They are located in: London (which includes Hackney, Islington and Lambeth); Newcastle-Gateshead; Liverpool; Manchester-Salford and Birmingham.
The city action teams have been successful in meeting their objectives of better co-ordinating Government action and help in the priority areas they cover. They aim to reduce the number of people in acute housing stress, 561W reduce the number of derelict sites and void buildings and increase job opportunities and the employability of certain groups. Total Government provision for expenditure in the city action teams priority areas was estimated to amount to about £670 million in 1985–86, and about £739 million in 1986–87. The Government have provided an additional £1 million to the Newcastle-Gateshead city action team during 1986–87 to provide pump-priming finance as part of their response to the recent shibuilding closures in the north-east.