To ask the Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government what responsibilities for regional policy her Department (a) gained and (b) lost as a result of the recent machinery of Government changes. (152935)

The Department for Communities and Local Government's shared (with the former Department for Trade and Industry and HM Treasury) Regional Economic Performance target—to improve sustainable economic performance in all regions by 2008, and over the long term (by 2012) reduce the persistent gap in growth rates between the regions—transferred to the Department for Business, Enterprise and Regulatory Reform as part of the recent machinery of Government changes.