§ Mr. Gordon BrownTo ask the Chancellor of the Duchy of Lancaster what are the estimated outturn expenditure figures for 1987–88 for each of the inner-city initiatives announced by he Government since 1983.
§ Mr. Kenneth ClarkeMy Department's budget provides finance for the special budgets of the city action teams and for the top-up funds of the inner-city task forces. Provision for the special budgets of the CATs is £5 million in 1987–88. I expect this to be fully committed to projects in the city areas they cover. The top-up budget of the inner-city initiative is £14 million this year, and I expect a substantial proportion of it to be spent on or committed to projects in the 16 task force areas. It is too soon to estimate the outturn of expenditure but I expect that not all available top-up funds will actually be spent in 1987–88 because half of the task forces have only started work during 1987 and we need to be sure that the money is committed to projects addressing the employment and enterprise aims of the initiative. The flow of programmes and approval is now speeding up rapidly and we are entering into substantial future commitments. The hon. Member may wish to ask similar questions of my colleagues with urban policy responsibilities about the budgets for their Department's programmes.