§ Mrs. GillanTo ask the Secretary of State for the Environment whether he has selected the areas to be included in the urban community initiative of the European structural funds.
§ Mr. CurryFurther to my right hon. Friend's answer of 29 March to the hon. Member for Hertfordshire, North (Mr. Heald),Official Report, columns 645–46, announcing the six non-objective 1 areas in England to participate in the urban community initiative, I have now selected the three areas from Merseyside—Liverpool Central, North Huyton—Knowsley—and Netherton—Sefton—which will be considered by the European Commission for funding the Urban initiative.
Originally, five areas put themselves forward, but the Commission requirements meant that only three could be included on the final list, which I chose after consultations with the local authorities and careful consideration of all the evidence.
The urban community initiative will bring an additional 80 million ecus—approximately £64 million—of European funding to Britain of which £13.5 million will go to the three Merseyside areas. The money will be used for new urban regeneration projects carried out by local partnerships, which will complement existing 130W programmes such as the single regeneration budget and the structural funds objectives 1 and 2.
My announcement today means the programme of nine British non-objective 1 areas, three Merseyside objective 1 areas and the objective 1 area in Northern Ireland is now complete, and the first projects should start this summer.