§ Mr. KidneyTo ask the Deputy Prime Minister and First Secretary of State what guidance his Department gives to participants in projects involving funding from the(a) Neighbourhood Renewal Fund. (b) New Deal for Communities and (c) Housing Market Renewal Fund relating to private renting. [63911]
§ Mr. McNultyThe Office of the Deputy Prime Minister issues guidance relating to the use of grant from the Neighbourhood Renewal Fund in the form of a Special Grant report, one of which is specifically drafted and laid before Parliament for debate and approval prior to each financial year throughout the lifetime of the fund. Special Grant report No. 78 specifies the purpose and allocations of funding and the conditions for use of the grant in 2001–02 and Special Grant report No. 93 sets out the corresponding purpose, allocations and conditions in 2002–03. Copies of the reports are placed in the House of Commons Library, sent to Neighbourhood Renewal Fund grant recipients and made available on the Office of the Deputy Prime Minister's website.
The New Deal for Communities grant is provided under section 126 of the Housing Grants, Construction and Regeneration Act 1996 and section 2 of the Employment and Training Act 1973. The Office of the Deputy Prime Minister makes NDC guidance available on its website, including:
- Learning Lessons: Pathfinders' Experiences of NDC Phase 1
- Phase 1 Proposals Guidance for Applicants
- Developing Delivery Plans
- Finance Guidance
- Developing and Testing Ideas
- Gathering Baseline Information
- Outcomes and Milestones
- Support and Advice
- New Deal for Communities and the Single Regeneration Budget-Project Appraisal and Approval
- New Deal for Communities Annual Review 2000–01
- NDC Project Appraisal and Approval Guidance
- Forward Strategies
- Delivering Change
- Monitoring. Review and Evaluation
- Race Equality Guidance.
The idea of a housing market renewal fund was proposed last autumn by the National Housing Federation, Key Cities Housing Group and the Northern Housing forums, against a backdrop of severe housing market failure in parts of the country. We are considering the proposal in the context of the current spending review.
338WHowever, we are in no doubt that we must address the problem of low demand housing, which underlies the fund proposal. That is why we have invited nine areas, where the problems are most acute, to work with Government establishing pathfinder projects to tackle low demand. We are making available £25 million from the Capital Modernisation Fund to assist the pathfinder projects in vital preparatory work. We have not issued guidance in relation to this funding, but limited criteria must be met before it can be drawn down.