HC Deb 19 November 2003 vol 413 cc1084-5W
Mr. Jim Cunningham

To ask the Deputy Prime Minister what evaluation of the Pathfinders programme has taken place. [139675]

Keith Hill

Individual schemes will be assessed by the Office of the Deputy Prime Minister and scrutinised independently by the Audit Commission before resources from the Housing Market Renewal Fund are allocated.

The Office of the Deputy Prime Minister shall be establishing monitoring systems that will enable us to see the effects of Pathfinder projects on both their own and neighbouring areas. In addition, we shall be evaluating the overall effectiveness of individual Pathfinders' approaches and the programme as a whole.

An evaluation of the Housing PFI Pathfinder programme has begun. The first part identified a framework for the evaluation programme. This is now completed. Following on from this, work is now underway on a baseline evaluation—the first phase of which has been completed. The findings can be found on the Office of the Deputy Prime Minister's website http://www.odpm.gov.uk/stellent/groups/odpm_housing/ documents/page/odpm_house_609810.pdf.

Mr. Jim Cunningham

To ask the Deputy Prime Minister in what ways(a) the West Midlands and (b) Coventry have benefited from Pathfinders. [139676]

Keith Hill

Both the North Staffordshire and the Birmingham and Sandwell Market Renewal Pathfinders are situated in the West Midlands region. Both have currently received funding of £6.66 million. This money is being used to prepare the Pathfinder's scheme and to fund some early interventions. The two Pathfinders are now currently in the process of preparing their strategic schemes to bid for resources from the Housing Market Renewal fund.

Coventry does not benefit from Housing Market Renewal activity because it lies outside of any of the nine Housing Market Renewal intervention areas.