£1bn boost for former pit villages 'has gone to waste'

Westminster's spending watchdog today questions the impact of the 1.1bn coalfields regeneration project – transforming areas hit badly by the pit closures in the 1980s and 1990s – after the Government admitted it could not prove how many jobs had been created.

The Commons Public Accounts Committee acknowledged there has been progress since three regeneration schemes were launched after Labour came to power, but criticised the Government for allowing projects to run over budget and behind schedule.

It also expresses surprise the money has been spent without a record of how many jobs were created and how well used the sites had been.

The verdict has angered Ministers and Labour MPs who said many areas had been "transformed" because of the funding but the committee was also damning of the failure of previous Tory governments to support areas devastated during their 18 years in power.

Whitehall officials told MPs the delay before the Coalfields Task Force was set up in 1997 had "contributed significantly" to many of the problems of unemployment and high levels of benefit claimants today.

Today's report comes after the National Audit Office (NAO) raised concerns about a lack of strategy at the Department for Communities and Local Government over the coalfield regeneration efforts.

The chairman of the Public Accounts Committee (PAC), Edward Leigh, said: "It is extremely doubtful whether the three initiatives by the Department for Communities and Local Government (DCLG) to regenerate the former coal mining areas are achieving value for money.

"Despite spending 630m so far, and 13 years after the launch of the initiatives, the Department still does not really know what improvement it has made to the lives of the people living in these areas."

The report acknowledged that the 630m spent so far had seen 54 former coalfield sites brought back into working use but says that 13 years after the start of the initiatives, 37 per cent of coalfield areas are still ranked amongst the most deprived in England.

The committee says the Government must "start afresh" and re-think the way it operates the schemes before spending the remaining 450m.

Rother Valley MP Kevin Barron said yesterday that public money had helped numerous areas, including the former Dinnington Colliery, and provided sites for private firms bringing jobs and investment.

"The Tories left coalfield areas in such a mess because all they did was close the pits," he said. "Dinnington closed in 1991 and nothing happened until well into the Labour government. These communities were just left desolate.

"This is something that will take decades – we've all accepted that."

n Two of Yorkshire's biggest coal firms are in merger talks to reunite the region's largest pits at Kellingley and Maltby.

UK Coal, which owns Yorkshire's biggest pit at Kellingley, is holding talks with Hargreaves Services, which owns Maltby colliery near Rotherham.