Mr. Robert AinsworthTo ask the Secretary of State for the Environment (1) if he will list those sites covered by British Gas where discussions are taking place about the possible approval of city grant;
(2) what is the current situation regarding his Department, English Partnerships and British Gas over grant applications; and if he will make a statement;
(3) how many applications for city grant there have been concerning sites owned by British Gas in the last two years;
(4) how city grant applications have been approved for sites owned by British Gas in the last two years; what were the amounts in each case; and what was the amount of clawback of grant in each case.
§ Mr. BaldryOn 10 November 1993 English Partnerships took over from my Department responsibility for the city grant programme—although not for the analogous grant offered by urban development corpora-tions in their own areas—including responsibility for on-going discussions over possible projects involving British Gas sites at the Greenwich peninsula, Foleshill gasworks, Coventry, and Pleck gasworks, Walsall. These discussions are at various stages.
In the last two years, one formal application for city grant has been received by the Department and English Partnerships in respect of a British Gas site—for Foleshill—and none has yet been approved.
Mr. Robert AinsworthTo ask the Secretary of State for the Environment if he will list the schemes given city grant in the west midlands region in the last two years with the amounts in each case; and what were the amounts of clawback of grant.
§ Mr. BaldryThe schemes in the Department of the Environment's west midlands region for which the provision of city grant was approved since April 1992, and the approved level of grant, are set out in the table. None of these schemes has yet reached the date for determining the level of any clawback. The urban development corporations offer their own grants analogous to city grant; schemes funded in this way are not included.
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Project Approved Grant (£) Birmingham Bordesley Village housing phase 3 206,000 Branston Street units 364,000 Trafalgar Road housing 657,000 Newton Road housing 264,000 Coventry Parkside offices phase 1 580,000 Dudley Waterfront phase 8 2,432,420 Waterfront Point North offices 2,903,025 Wollaston Road housing 1,302,612 Addison Road housing 760,000 Cosley Housing 250,000 Walsall Reedswood Park mixed development 8,000,000 Wolverhampton Bushbury Lane industrial units 113,000 Bell Place offices 107,000 Wolverhampton Racecourse redevelopment 3,037,000 Shaw Park offices 112,000 Cannock Road warehouse units 720,000 Spring Road industrial units 670,680 Springvale industrial units 2,282,000 Wrekin Station Road, Telford housing 434,000
Mr. Robert AinsworthTo ask the Secretary of State for the Environment what representations he has received concerning possible abuse of city grant.
§ Mr. BaldryNone.
Mr. Robert AinsworthTo ask the Secretary of State for the Environment how much city grant was given by his Department in each of the English regions in the last financial year.
§ Mr. BaldryThe total value of grants for city grant applications approved in 1992–93 for each of the Department of the Environment's regions is set out in the table. The figures do not include grants analogous to city grant, made by urban development corporations.
Region Total Approved Grants West Midlands 13,638,737 North West 12,393,565 Northern 11,552,480 Yorkshire and Humberside 4,915,428 London 1,999,528 East Midlands 2,212,155 Merseyside 14,157,312 South East 0 South West 3,705,204