HC Deb 02 December 1997 vol 302 cc105-6W
Mr. Keetch

To ask the Secretary of State for the Environment, Transport and the Regions if he will list the locations of the successful outline bids for round 4 SRBs, indicating the names and political control of those local authorities concerned; and if he will make a statement. [17311]

Mr. Caborn

Bids for round 4 of the SRB Challenge Fund are not defined at the outline stage as successful or unsuccessful. I have placed a table which contains details of all 371 outline bids received by Government Offices for the Regions in the House Libraries.

Government Offices for the Regions currently are considering outline bids, to determine the extent to which these meet the objectives and criteria for the Challenge Fund and merit working up into final bids.

Mr. Burstow

To ask the Secretary of State for the Environment, Transport and the Regions how many local authorities submitted bids for each round of(a) the Single Regeneration Budget and (b) Capital Challenge; and how many were successful in each round. [18740]

Angela Eagle

The information is as follows:

Single Regeneration Budget The numbers of bids for support from the four rounds of the Single Regeneration Budget Challenge Fund submitted by local authorities, either individually or as partners, are as follows:

Round 1 Round 2 Round 3 Round 41
Total number of final bids received 469 329 310 371
Number of final bids received from local authorities2 235 171 186 167
Number of successful bids from local authorities2 108 93 109 —
1 All bids are currently at the outline stage only.
1 Where the local authority is the lead partner.

Capital Challenge There has been only one round of Capital Challenge. There were 330 local authorities, acting jointly or separately, which submitted a total of 326 bids. Of these, 189 bids, involving 217 authorities, were successful either in full or in part.

Mr. Burstow

To ask the Secretary of State for the Environment, Transport and the Regions what estimates he has made of the costs incurred by local authorities in preparing and submitting bids in each round of(a) the Single Regeneration Budget and (b) Capital Challenge. [18739]

Angela Eagle

For the Single Regeneration Budget Challenge Fund, my Department commissioned the Department of Land Economy at the University of Cambridge to evaluate rounds 1 and 2. An interim report explored the level of resources committed by ten local partnerships, including those with local authority partners, which submitted unsuccessful bids. The average time committed by each partnership to the bidding process was 16 weeks, at a cost of £10,000.

None of the unsuccessful bidders regarded the bidding process as a waste of resources, nor did they regard it as more costly than preparing proposals under other funding regimes. The benefits of the bidding process were recognised, particularly in improving inter-agency partnership working.

For Capital Challenge, the Local Government Research Programme Report "Evaluation of the Experience of Authorities during the Capital Challenge Pilot Scheme Bidding Round" estimated that the average value of resources used in the preparation of bids was £14,000.