HC Deb 02 December 1987 vol 123 c602W
94. Mr. Squire

To ask the Chancellor of the Duchy of Lancaster what progress is being made with the inner city task forces; and if he will make a statement.

Mr. Kenneth Clarke

I would inform my hon. Friend that my Department is responsible for the inner-city task forces.

All 16 of our inner-city task forces are now operational. Specifically the task forces aim to:

  • Generate more jobs for local people.
  • Encourage local enterprise development.
    • Provide enterprise training, financial and managerial assistance to new businesses.
  • Improve the employability of local people, including those about to enter the labour market, by training programmes aimed at specific employment opportunities.
  • Support initiatives designed to improve the environment, the provision of community services and to reduce the level of crime where these can be linked to the reintegration of local people into local economic activity.
  • Improve co-ordination between different Government programmes, and with the activities of other local bodies such as (local authorities/the voluntary sector, private industry).
  • Strengthen the capability of local organisations to undertake long term economic and enterprise development activity.
  • Target the employment needs of specific disadvantaged groups, especially ethnic minorities.
  • Develop innovative solutions to problems, which can be applied in other inner-city areas.

I encourage our task force teams, who are civil servants from several Departments and secondees from the private sector, to adopt an imaginative non-bureaucratic approach to the problems of their districts and to develop strong links with the residents and the businesses.

Over 250 projects with a focus on enterprise and jobs are already being funded in the areas they cover. The private sector is becoming increasingly involved with our efforts. Over 200 companies are already working with the task forces and more are looking to help. I believe that the task force approach is proving very successful now that some of them are well established and that all the task forces are a valuable instrument of direct Government help for the areas they serve.