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National Lottery
4. Sir John Hannam: To ask the Secretary of State for National Heritage how many good causes have been awarded funds from the national lottery in south-west England.[16354]
Mrs. Virginia Bottomley: In the south-west of England, 377 national lottery awards totalling £52,681,000 have been awarded. City Screen Ltd., the Riding for the Disabled Association and the Devon branch of the British Red Cross have received awards and are three examples of 10 awards that amount to more than£1 million in my hon. Friend's constituency.
Sir John Hannam: I congratulate my hon. Friend on, and thank her for, the wide range of awards to my constituency and to the south-west. However, will she accept that the tremendous success of the national lottery has created its own problem because many organisations face increasing difficulties in raising matching funds for
the grants that they have been given? Will she therefore consider relaxing the rules of matching funds to ensure that many such projects reach completion in future?
Mrs. Bottomley: All the distributing bodies have flexibility in the extent of partnership funding for which they ask. The Sports Council, for instance, recently announced a number of initiatives for which it wants only 10 per cent. funding. The caring charities do not ask for partnership funding at all. In spite of the cries of concern, the evidence to date has been that matched funding is increasing. Overall, for every £1 of lottery money, £1.49 has been produced in partnership funding. Figures for the latest three months suggest that for every £1 of lottery money, £1.61 has been raised in partnership funding. In other words, lottery partnership money is improving in the same way as business sponsorship of the arts last year increased by one fifth on the previous year.
Mr. Barnes: Is it not demeaning for hon. Members to have to get up in National Heritage questions to try to get funds for their constituencies or to be informed by the Minister how much money has gone to their areas? Why do we not have proper Question Times such as those that we used to have on energy and on employment, which address serious matters rather than who happens to get what for his area in the log roll?
Mrs. Bottomley: I think that hon. Members know that it is not within my power or gift to distribute lottery money. They also celebrate the fact that many arts, sports and heritage projects are able to receive funding on an unprecedented basis. That is a source of great pleasure and a great achievement for all those who are benefiting throughout the country through more than 5,000 different awards.
Millennium Projects (Wales)
5. Mr. Win Griffiths: To ask the Secretary of State for National Heritage if she will list the projects in Wales which will be considered by the Millennium Commission before the end of March.[16355]
Mrs. Virginia Bottomley: The Millennium Commission has considered applications for funding for the Welsh national stadium in Cardiff and the Middleton botanic garden. The Millennium Commission awarded grants of £46 million and £43 million respectively to those projects. The commission does not expect to consider any further applications until April.
Mr. Griffiths: Is it not true that, after the Cardiff opera house fiasco, the Millennium Commission never had any other intention but to award the national stadium to Cardiff? Consequently, the Bridgend proposal was strung along to the extent that, on the day that the announcement was made, Jennifer Page, the chief executive of the Millennium Commission, wrote to the Bridgend consortium saying that its proposal was insufficiently developed and, without the backing of the Welsh Rugby Union, would not succeed, while a Millennium Commission projects officer wrote on the same day to say that Bridgend's project was under initial consideration and that all projects would be reviewed by the end of April.
Will the Secretary of State commission an inquiry into why Bridgend was deliberately misled by the Millennium Commission? Will she release a copy of the report given to the Millennium Commission and a transcript of the proceedings, which I believe were fixed? The Bridgend proposal was never going to be considered by the commission.
Mrs. Bottomley:
If the hon. Gentleman had had his way, there would not have been a lottery in the first place. Along with 41 Opposition Members, he voted against the national lottery. If he had had his way, there would be no national stadium in Cardiff and no botanic gardens. Some 23 per cent. of the Millennium Commission's money has gone to Wales, but not a penny of it would have gone to Wales if Opposition Members had had their way. The Millennium Commission looks carefully at each application. The decisions are never easy; I can say only that the commission takes great care and great trouble.I believe that the stadium in Cardiff will be a magnificent place to accommodate the 1999 Rugby world cup.
Mr. John Marshall:
Will my right hon. Friend suggest to the Millennium Commission that, when it considers projects in Wales, it should consider that some in Wales want not to celebrate, but to destroy our national heritage by making Britain a republic?
Mrs. Bottomley:
I entirely agree. As Secretary of State for National Heritage, I believe strongly in protecting the institutions of this country. Those who flirt with republicanism are likely to get the result achieved by the Labour party in Australia.
Mr. Fisher:
What is the Secretary of State's policy towards millennium fund projects in Wales and elsewhere whose grants lead directly to an increase in the profits and capital assets of the private sector companies that happen to own the sites in question? How will she ensure that the public benefit from, and share, the huge profits and increase in land values that British Gas is likely to gain if the millennium exhibition goes to its site in Greenwich? What lessons are there more generally--
Madam Speaker:
Order. The question relates entirely to Wales. If the hon. Gentleman relates his supplementary question to Wales, it is acceptable; otherwise it is not. The question is specifically about one area of the country.
Mr. Fisher:
I was asking what lessons there were for millennium projects in Wales from the actions that the Secretary of State intends to take in Greenwich.
Mrs. Bottomley:
I appreciate the hon. Gentleman's question; it is an important matter which needs clarification. On all occasions, the Millennium Commission seeks to get value for grants. If the Millennium Commission had such a project in Wales,it would ask somebody of the calibre and ability of Sir Peter Levene to ensure that any grant that it invested in a project delivered the best possible return for the people.
6. Mr. Anthony Coombs:
To ask the Secretary of State
Mrs. Virginia Bottomley:
Three hundred and thirty-one national lottery awards totalling £53,426,000 have been awarded in the west midlands.
Mr. Coombs:
In contrast to the carping of Opposition Members, may I reassure my right hon. Friend that the national lottery is extremely popular in my constituency? Is she aware that the national lottery has meant that £25,000 has gone to Age Concern to fund anew its minibus for people in the area and that we are getting no less than £1 million for a regional sports centre between Kidderminster and Stourport? Will my right hon. Friend consider, through national lottery funds, funding for a permanent home for the Bewdley festival, which has become such a success in my area over the past decade?
Mrs. Bottomley:
I am delighted to hear about the great contribution that the national lottery makes in my hon. Friend's constituency. His Age Concern project is one of 40 Age Concern projects that have received almost£2 million so far from the national lottery. There have been well over 840 awards for the arts--more will be announced tomorrow--throughout the country and particularly the west midlands. I shall pass on to the chairman of the Arts Council and its lottery board my hon. Friend's concern for his particular project.
Mr. Olner:
The Minister will realise that Nuneaton rugby football club in my constituency will not be happy with her answer, as the club had a perfectly good bid turned down for no transparent reason. Is she aware that no lottery money has come to my constituency? Does she agree that a transparent answer should be given to organisations that have been refused bids? Does she further agree that people in the west midlands require a transparent answer as to why the millennium exhibition will be in Greenwich, despite the fact that the midlands' bid was better?
Mrs. Bottomley:
The national lottery has been distributing grants for less than a year, but 176 awards amounting to more than £13 million have been made to football in that time. I very much hope that the club to which the hon. Gentleman referred will be one of the lucky ones in the year ahead.
Mr. Fabricant:
While I understand the concern of the hon. Member for Nuneaton (Mr. Olner) about the Millennium Commission not putting the exhibition in Birmingham, was not the British Tourist Authority--which promotes this country's tourism overseas--right to say that Greenwich was the only possible location for the exhibition, which will receive international recognition? Does my right hon. Friend deplore, as I do, the claim that jobs will be lost in south-east Staffordshire, of all places, because the exhibition will not be held at the national exhibition centre?
Mrs. Bottomley:
I am confident that the millennium festival in Greenwich will be a tremendous success, providing a national and international focus and an opportunity to gather together the nation to look forward
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