§ Mr. HarveyTo ask the President of the Board of Trade what is the total funding of the local competitiveness budget and sector challenge fund for the next financial year; and if he will list the allocation of these funds by region. [15002]
§ Mr. PageThe total funding for the local competitiveness budget in 1997–98 is £169 million. Allocations have been made to regions for the business link core services, regional supply network and investors in people parts of the budget. The level of expenditure in each region from the local challenge part of this budget will depend upon the quality of individual bids in each region. In addition, some of the budget is used at national level to support local activity, for example on business link publicity and on management best practice.
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Region 1997–98 DTI core services provision £ 1997–98 regional supply network provision £ 1997–98 DJEE investors in people provision £ South East 11,433,953 373,000 7,765,000 London 10,852,241 253,000 11,374,000 Eastern 7,363,309 270,000 5,969,000 South West1 7,963,441 299,676 5,582,000 West Midlands 8,402,068 375,000 6,993,000 East Midlands 5,788,621 327,000 5,192,000
Region 1997–98 DTI core services provision £ 1997–98 regional supply network provision £ 1997–98 DfEE investors in people provision £ Yorkshire and Humberside 6,400,000 297,600 6,610,000 North West 8,750,000 383,000 2,015,000 Merseyside2 1,909,367 — 7,500,000 North East 3,700,000 157,594 3,199,000 National total 72,563,000 2,735,870 62,199,000 1 South West regional supply network includes £12,626 for Devon and Cornwall regional supply office. 2 Merseyside regional supply network provision is included in the figure for the north west. Funding for the first round of sector challenge will amount to at least £30 million over three years. The actual expenditure in each year will be affected by the spend profile of the portfolio of successful bids. There is no prior allocation of the fund to different regions. The challenge is a UK-wide competition and the geographical location of organisations mounting successful bids may not relate directly to the regions in which benefits from those bids will accrue.