§ The Earl of Northeskasked Her Majesty's Government:
What arrangements they have made in regard to the allocation of capital resources for local authorities to tackle contaminated land in 1996–97.
The Minister of State, Department of the Environment (Earl Ferrers)We have today written to 44 local authorities and waste disposal authorities informing them of the Secretary of State for the Environment's intention to issue Supplementary Credit Approvals (SCAs) of nearly £7.4 million for 1996–97 in respect of capital expenditure on 83 new projects to deal with contaminated land problems.
This makes a total of £14.1 million being made available under the contaminated land SCA programme this year, as the Department of Environment has already written to 35 authorities about making SCAs of £6.7 million in respect of 94 on-going projects from previous years and two new projects.
Since its inception in 1990–91, this programme has provided some £67 million of SCAs for work to be undertaken on contaminated sites.
The SCA programme for contaminated land is aimed at tackling problems on sites in local authority ownership or where they have responsibility to take action and cannot recover their costs. The department operates an assessment and prioritisation procedure to ensure that the available funding goes to projects representing the greatest threat to health or the environment.