Inner Cities

To ask the Chancellor of the Duchy of Lancaster what proportion of the trade and industry programme is spent in the inner cities.

My Department plans to spend £1,250 million in 1988–89. All its programmes take account as appropriate of the needs of the inner cities. Inner cities will in particular benefit from the enhanced rate of support for business development consultancies under the enterprise initiative. But it is not possible in every case to identify that proportion of the budget which is spent in the inner cities. However expenditure by the inner cities unit and grant in aid for English Estates new managed workshop programme are solely directed at inner city areas and this will amount to £27 million in 1988–89.

To ask the Chancellor of the Duchy of Lancaster (1) if he will list in the Official Report which wards of which local authorities he treats as part of the inner cities;(2) which local authorities, or parts of local authorities, are covered by the inner cities;(3) which areas of the United Kingdom are not eligible for assistance under the action for cities programme.

The areas for action for most of the cities programmes are shown in the map in the "Action for Cities" document, copies of which have been placed in the Library and Vote Office, and distributed to Members of the House with urban constituencies. Some programmes or initiatives, such as the urban development corporations, urban programme, enterprise zones, and inner city task forces, operate within precisely defined boundaries. For urban programme purposes, priority areas are either formally defined, in the case of partnership areas, or agreed with local authorities in order to target resources through inner area programmes. Urban programme areas are also used to target some other forms of support including special assistance under the enterprise initiative. Support through other programmes, such as housing association grant and estate action is available more widely, but is concentrated in inner cities.

To ask the Chancellor of the Duchy of Lancaster if he will give for each inner city area, and for inner cities in total, the population, employment, unemployment, child population, school population and pensioner population.

Figures are available only for urban programme areas and not for any other definition of inner city areas. Those figures are shown in the tables. Table 1 gives the latest available estimates of numbers of employees, taken from the September 1984 census of employment. The results of the September 1987 census are expected to become available next year. Table 2 gives estimated district level unemployment percentage rates for November 1987, using 1981 census data on population as the denominator. Table 3 gives the usually resident self-employed population aged over 16, drawn from the 1981 census. Table 4 gives OPCS population estimates for mid 1986, broken down (i) for under 15s, (ii) for those of pensionable age.

To ask the Chancellor of the Duchy of Lancaster (1) what was the expenditure of each Department in the inner cities in each year since 1978–79;(2) what was the expenditure of each Department on the inner cities planned for 1988–89; and what is the estimated outcome for 1986–87 and 1987–88;(3) if he will state the expenditure for 1988–89 and all the years of the public expenditure White Paper spent by each Department as part of the inner cities programme.

Information on inner city expenditure by Departments is not available on a consistent basis before 1988–89. Final decisions have not been taken on the proportion of planned expenditure which will be directed to inner cities for later years of the public expenditure survey. My right hon. Friends are responding individually to the hon. Member on the proportion of their Department's expenditure directed at inner cities. We estimate that some £3,000 million will be directed to the inner cities through the programme and initiatives described in the "Action for Cities" document, copies of which are available in the Library of the House.