§ Mr. Raymond S. RobertsonTo ask the Secretary of State for Scotland if he will make a statement on his proposals for urban regeneration policy in Scotland following consideration of the response to the consultation paper "Progress in Partnership."
§ Mr. LangI am pleased to announce today the outcome of the review of urban regeneration policy in Scotland. The consultation paper attracted a good response and I am grateful to the many organisations and individuals which offered their views. We have studied the responses carefully and they have been influential in shaping our proposals. I have placed in the Library of the House a copy of the paper. "Programme for Partnership", which is being published today by the Scottish Office and which sets out our key proposals. I shall also send individual copies to all hon. Members representing Scottish constituencies.
Regeneration has to be comprehensive, tackling the economic, physical and social problems of disadvantaged urban areas. Each area needs a co-ordinated strategy and a partnership of public and private sectors and local communities.
We plan to encourage the formation of city/district wide partnerships in areas with significant concentrations of deprivation. They will involve, as key partners, the local authorities, Scottish Homes and the local enterprise companies as well as other public sector agencies and representatives of the private and voluntary sectors. These partnerships will be invited both to produce regeneration strategies at city/district level and to develop more localised proposals for priority areas.
About two-thirds of urban programme resources will, in future, be allocated to "Priority Partnership Areas" designed by the Scottish Office following discussions with city/district partnerships. The remainder of urban programme resources will be available to support regeneration activity in other eligible disadvantaged areas. In both cases, allocations will take account of need and the quality of proposals submitted. The Scottish Office will no longer be involved in assessing and approving individual urban programme project applications. These decisions will be made locally.
354WWe plan shortly to consult those bodies chiefly involved in implementation on a range of matters, including the timetable for introducing the new arrangements and a number of detailed issues concerning the operation of the urban programme, and will be circulating a consultation document to them.
The Government are firmly committed to promoting greater private sector involvement in urban regeneration. We therefore propose to establish a working group to examine current private sector involvement in regeneration, identify any factors constraining this involvement and report back with recommendations. The membership of this group, which will draw in leading representatives of key private sector interests and their counterparts from relevant public authorities and agencies, will be announced shortly.