§ Mr. DrewTo ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs if she will make a statement on progress by each Regional Development Agency on the Market and Coastal Towns Initiative; and what the budget for each RDA was for each year of the initiative. [167859]
§ Alun MichaelWhen the announcement of the funding was made, it was envisaged that 100 towns would benefit but I am pleased to report that, through the innovative methods used in each of the regions, 227 towns are currently receiving support.
The Rural White Paper offered funding of £37 million to enable the Regional Development Agencies and the Countryside Agency to support market town regeneration in the regions over a period of three years (2000–01 to 2003–04).
£32 million was allocated to the Regional Development Agencies and £5 million to the Countryside Agency. The funding for the Regional Development Agencies was incorporated in the DEFRA contribution to their Single Programme, to enable regional partnerships to target towns in their region according to selection criteria agreed regionally. The initiative was not established as a national funding programme with an annual budget for each agency.
The start of the initiative was delayed in many of the regions due to the foot and mouth crisis, with some regions not launching their own initiatives or incurring spend until last year. For this reason data from the Regional Development Agencies on their expenditure is unlikely to be available until the initiative is evaluated, which DEFRA is currently discussing with the Regional Development Agencies.