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Office of the Deputy Prime Minister

Answer

Mrs. Curtis-Thomas: To ask the Deputy Prime Minister how much public funding has been spent from the Community Participation programmes in Crosby. [177852] Yvette Cooper: The Community Participation Programmes (Community Empowerment Fund, Community Learning Chest and Community Chests) provide funds for the 88 most deprived local authority areas in England. Crosby falls within Sefton , which is one of these areas. Community Participation funds are always provided directly to a community or voluntary sector organisation in each of the 88 areas. The Community Empowerment Fund is used to develop and support a Community Empowerment Network (CEN) helping to facilitate community and voluntary sector involvement in the LSP, especially in the most deprived neighbourhoods and hard-to-reach groups. The Community Chest and Learning Chests provide small grants to support a wide range of community activities and to develop the skills and knowledge of local communities so that they can participate in Neighbourhood Renewal at a local level. The organisation that administers the Community Empowerment Fund is Sefton Council for Voluntary Service and the Community Foundation for Merseyside administers Community Chest and Community Learning Chests. These organisations identify and agree spending priorities with the Community Empowerment Network and other VCS stakeholders, which is then approved by the Government Office. The total Community Participation grant allocation for Sefton over three years (2001-04) is £1,215,434. This financial year (2004-05) the grant allocation for Sefton will be £551,064.

Secondary information

Type

Written question

Reference

177852; 422 c1150W

Session

2003-04

Subjects

Community development Expenditure Crosby Community Empowerment Fund

Contains statistics

Yes

Link

View this Written question on www.publications.parliament.uk