HC Deb 24 November 1987 vol 123 cc151-2W
Mr. Gould

To ask the Chancellor of the Duchy of Lancaster if he will list for each of the inner city task forces(a) their budget for the current year and their projected budgets for the next three years, (b) the size of their development fund budget for making grants to new businesses, (c) the grants made from each development fund since their creation, (d) the number of jobs created through such grants, (e) the size of their budget for making grants to voluntary organisations, (f) the grants made to voluntary organisations since their creation, (g) the number of people employed by voluntary organisations through such grants and (h) the amount of private sector money made available through the task force.

Mr. Kenneth Clarke

The information requested is as follows:

  1. (a) Task forces are not allocated separate budgets. The total budget for the 16 task forces and the central unit for the current year is £14.3 million. I will announce the budget for the next three years, after the publication of the Governments public expenditure White Paper in the new year.
  2. (b) There is no budget as such. Each task force enters into separate negotiations with banks to establish a development fund, and each fund is differently constituted. They may make loans as well as grants. The size of the task force contribution to their fund in those areas that have established them is as follows:

£
Chapeltown/Harehills (Leeds) 100,000
Handsworth (Birmingham) 200,000
St. Pauls, Bristol 125,000
Moss Side, Manchestcr 55,000
North Kensington 50,000
Middlesbrough (North Central) 50,000
North Peckham 100,000
Wolverhampton 65,000

(c) The number of grants made by each task force development fund is as follows:

Number
Chapeltown/Harehills (Leeds) 29
Handsworth (Birmingham) 55
St. Pauls, Bristol 33
Moss Side, Manchester 4
North Kensington 25
Middlesbrough (North Central) 7
North Peckham 1
Wolverhampton 10

(d) It is not possible to give a precise figure for the number of jobs created through task force development fund grants as we have no means of measuring additionality or the number of jobs created indirectly.

(e) There is no specific budget allocation for grants to voluntary organisations; each project proposal put forward is treated on its merits.

(f) The number of grants to voluntary organisations made by each task force is as follows:

Number
Chapeltown/Harehills (Leeds) 22
Coventry Foleshill/Hillfields 13
Doncaster 0
Handsworth (Birmingham) 32
Hartlepool 2
Highfields (Leicester) 13
Middlesbrough (North Central) 15
Moss Side, Manchester 13
North Kensington 13
North Peckham 14
Nottingham 1
Preston 0
Rochdale 1
Spitalfields 4
St. Pauls (Bristol) 13
Wolverhampton 5
Inner Cities Unit 9

(g) It is not possible to give a figure for the number of people employed by voluntary organisations as a result of task force grants.

(h) It is not possible to break down the amount of private sector money made available through each task force. We estimate the inner cities unit overall is now striking a 'leverage' ratio of around 1:1.6 public to private sector funding.

Back to