§ Mr. SawfordTo ask the Secretary of State for the Environment, Transport and the Regions when he will announce the home improvement agency grant allocations for 2001–02; and what steps he is taking to extend the benefits of agency services into areas where they are not currently available. [154273]
§ Mr. RaynsfordAs announced in Spending Review 2000, an extra £1.8 million is being provided in grant for home improvement agencies from 2001–02, bringing the total grant to £8.5 million a year. Local authorities are being notified of their allocations today.
This money will be provided in each of the next three years, and in 2003–04 it will be ring-fenced within the new Supporting People budget.
As well as providing additional support for authorities with existing agencies, I am pleased to be able to offer grant to 52 authorities for the first time. This will increase the number of agencies supported by my Department from 183 to 235 and will allow substantially more elderly, disabled and vulnerable people across the country to benefit from the services agencies can provide.
The authorities being offered grant for the first time are as follows:
- Bath and North East Somerset
- Blaby
- Bromley
- Canterbury
- Castle Point
- Chelmsford
- Chesterfield
- Corby
- Darlington
- Enfield
- Fenland
- Gloucester
- Great Yarmouth
- Guildford
- Harborough
- Harlow
- Huntingdonshire
- Kerrier
- Kettering
- Lambeth
- Lichfield
- New Forest
- North East Lincolnshire
- Norwich
- Nuneaton and Bedworth
- Richmondshire
- Rochdale
- Runnymede
- Rutland
- Salford
- Scarborough
- Sedgemoor
686W - Selby
- Shrewsbury and Atcham
- Slough
- South Cambridgeshire
- South Derbyshire
- South Gloucestershire
- South Hams
- South Norfolk
- South Oxfordshire
- Stafford
- Tameside
- Tandridge
- Tendring
- Torbay
- Trafford
- Waverley
- Westminster
- Weymouth and Portland
- Windsor and Maidenhead
- Woking.