§ 19. Mr. George OsborneTo ask the Deputy Prime Minister what estimate he has made of the cost of establishing an elected North West Regional Assembly. [81559]
§ Mr. RaynsfordThe costs of establishing elected regional assemblies will vary from region to region, mainly due to the different sizes of their electorates, but we expect them all to fall into a range of around £15million to £30 million a region, including the costs of a referendum and of the first assembly elections. The North West is likely to fall towards the upper end of this range.