Land: Contamination

Mr. Drew
To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs how much is available for contaminated land grants in 2007-08; and how much was available in each of the previous four years.

Jonathan Shaw
DEFRA’s Contaminated Land Capital Projects Programme has been resourced by grants, provided under the Local Government Act 2003, since 2006-07. The grant paid for 2006-07 was £13.5 million but the figure for 2007-08 is not yet available.

In the three years before the introduction of grants, the contaminated land programme funding was by Supplementary Credit Approvals in 2003-04, and by Supported Capital Expenditure (Revenue) in 2004-05 and 2005-06. Under both finance systems, the funding was delivered via the Revenue Support Grant system. The amounts for 2003-04, 2004-05 and 2005-06 were £15.3 million, £10.3 million and £12.3 million respectively.