To ask the Deputy Prime Minister if he will make it his policy (a) to take into account regional wage differentials in distributing the neighbourhood renewal fund and (b) to apply an area cost adjustment to the calculation. [124746]

The Government's policy for determining eligibility for and distributing Neighbourhood Renewal Fund (NRF) resources is based on the Indices of Deprivation 2000 (ID2000). This applies to the £900 million of NRF resources that have been allocated, as part of Spending Review 2000 (SR2000), in 2001–02 to 2003–04, and to the additional £975 million of NRF resources provided for in Spending Review 2002 (SR2002) for 2004–05 and 2005–06.