HC Deb 21 January 1988 vol 125 c770W
Mr. Cummings

To ask the Chancellor of the Duchy of Lancaster what definition of deprivation his Department uses in relation to the granting of inner-city development grants.

Mr. Trippier

I have been asked to reply.

In England, priority for urban development grant and urban regeneration grant is given to the 57 urban programme areas. The selection of these areas, whose local authorities have been invited to submit inner-area programmes for support under the urban programme, is not based on any single measure of deprivation, but the following factors were taken into account:

Unemployment: the scale, rate and concentration of residential unemployment, including information on long term and youth unemployment, and unemployment at ward level.

Census information: selected census indicators of economic, social and housing stress, showing the scale, intensity and concentration of deprivation.

Dereliction: information from the 1982 derelict land survey.

Population: towns over 30,000. In addition to these specific factors, account was taken of the local and regional economic context.