Regional Planning and Development: Finance

James Duddridge
To ask the Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government how much has been spent on implementing the Review of Sub-National Economic Development and Regeneration (a) in total and (b) for (i) staffing costs, (ii) administrative costs, (iii) communication costs and (iv) the costs of public consultation.

John Healey
Given the wide-ranging nature of the proposals contained in the review, much of the information requested could be obtained only at disproportionate cost. The consultation document ‘Prosperous Places: Taking Forward the Review of Sub-National Economic Development and Regeneration’ includes an impact assessment of the potential cost of the proposed local authority economic assessment duty, and further assessments will be carried out of the impact of the legislation the Government intend to bring forward.

The costs of public consultation incurred to date have been:

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|                                                 |£     |
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|Web publication of SNR issues paper December 2007|7,000 |
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|Web publication of Prosperous Places March 2008  |12,000|
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|Eight regional consultation events May 2008      |40,000|
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|Analysis of responses to Prosperous Places so far|39,000|
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|                                                 |      |
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|Total                                            |98,000|
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These costs have been shared between this Department and the Department for Business, Enterprise and Regulatory Reform.