social enterprise

This article is provided courtesy of the news feed at http://www.newstartmag.co.uk/news

A parliamentary watchdog has expressed ‘serious concerns’ over the value for money of initiatives designed to regenerate England’s former coal mining areas.

Thirteen years after they were set up, the three initiatives overseen by the DCLG have cost the taxpayer considerably more than originally expected and taken far longer than planned, according to the public accounts committee.

Speaking as the committee published its latest report, chair Edward Leigh said it was ‘extremely doubtful’ whether the work of the National Coalfields Programme, Coalfield Regeneration Trust and Coalfield Enterprise Fund to regenerate former coal mining areas was achieving value for money.

MPs also found the DCLG did not act quickly enough to support enterprise in coalfield areas and ‘lacked clarity’ as to how its initiatives could best help the local communities in which it is investing.

Mr Leigh said: ‘The department does not know what improvement the initiatives had made to the lives of people living in the coalfield areas, as it does not have a robust assessment to prove to us the true number of additional jobs created. Nor does it know the business occupancy rates for employment space on the redeveloped sites, or the number of people from former coalfield communities who have benefited.’

The government originally developed the schemes – involving a commitment of more than £1bn – in response to the severe economic, social and environmental deprivation many communities faced in the aftermath of the pit closures.

By July last year, the initiatives had brought 54 former coalfield sites back into working use, enabled private development of 2,700 houses and provided financial support to around 3,000 community projects at a cost of £630m. But more than a third of coalfield areas were still ranked among the most deprived in England in 2007.

Acknowledging that the scale of the challenge facing the DCLG was ‘undoubtedly enormous’, Mr Leigh concluded it ‘must start afresh, with a proper assessment of the needs of the former coalfield areas in 2010 and the articulation of a clear and time-bound objective, with sophisticated means of measuring progress, and an overarching strategy’.

He added: ‘It must also start to do what it has failed to do so far and take the lead in coordinating the efforts of all government departments to ensure a concerted approach to revitalising coalfield communities.’