§ Mr. McMasterTo ask the Secretary of State for Scotland if he has reviewed the success of the four Scottish urban partnership initiatives; if he has any plans to extend such initiatives to the Foxbar Rivers area of Paisley and the Johnstone west area of priority treatment; and if he will make a statement.
§ Lord James Douglas-Hamilton[holding answer 2 June 1992]: The four Scottish Office-led urban partnership initiatives announced in "New Life for Urban Scotland" in 1988 were conceived as pilot initiatives designed to demonstrate the benefits of a comprehensive, strategic approach to the problems of severely disadvantaged communities in our cities and towns. The partnerships bring together, in a co-ordinated fashion, the activities of all relevant public sector organisations. In addition, both the local communities and the private sector are fully involved in the partnership process.
Given the intensity of the problems faced in these areas, it was recognised at the outset that regeneration would require long-term commitment—possibly up to 10 years. Formal monitoring and evaluation procedures have been built into these initiatives since their conception. Although it is too early to draw firm conclusions, there are a number of encouraging signs of success. In economic terms, more than 5,000 jobs have been found for local residents and more than 1,700 training placements have been made. Substantial physical progress has been made with improvements to more than 4,000 houses and the construction of 1,000 new homes completed, under way or planned.
There are no plans at present to increase the number of Scottish Office-led urban partnership initiatives, but I am confident that the lessons learnt through careful monitoring and evaluation of the partnership initiatives will be very relevant to the regeneration of other disadvantaged areas in urban Scotland.