§ Mr. PearsonTo ask the Secretary of State for Trade and Industry if he will publish further details of the new funding to support cluster development, announced by the Chancellor of the Exchequer on 21 March. [116660]
§ Mr. ByersI can announce £50 million of new money to enable the RDAs to support clusters, including business incubation, in the English regions. The eight Regional Development Agencies (and the London Development Agency, when it is established in the summer) will be responsible for promoting the development of clusters in their respective regions: the new money, together with existing funding streams, will provide them with resources towards this. This new DTI initiative demonstrates the Government's commitment to strengthening the business agenda in the regions.
44WRDAs are being invited to prepare business plans for their regions setting out their proposals to support clusters development in line with the Regional Economic Strategies. These plans will set out details of what each RDA intends to achieve using money allocated to them from the new fund. The £50 million will cover the financial years 2000–01 and 2001–02. Financial allocations for future years are being considered as part of the current Spending Review. Each RDA (and the LDA) will receive an allocation from the Capital Modernisation Fund of £1½ million for the coming financial year (2000–01). For the following year (2001–02), we shall introduce a "Challenge" element in the allocations.