Juppe to spend pounds 2bn reviving inner cities

MARY DEJEVSKY

Paris

The French Prime Minister, Alain Juppe, yesterday put forward a plan intended to boost deprived urban areas.

Mr Juppe announced a development programme for 700 deprived urban areas across France, and a subsidy of 15bn francs (pounds 2bn) to help to fund it, making it one of the largest state projects ever.

The programme, which had been promised by Jacques Chirac during his campaign for the presidency last year, was given special priority after a rash of rioting and unrest in the suburbs of French cities over the summer.

The measures include the establishment of 20 enterprise zones, which will be exempt from local and business taxes for five years; the provision of 4,000 extra police; new units for repeat juvenile offenders; and the creation of 100,000 jobs over four years - to be funded in part by the state and restricted to those between the ages of 18 and 25. One in four under-25s in France is unemployed, and the proportion on many housing estates is much higher.

In line with Mr Chirac's New Year pledge to make government ministers more accessible and more visible in the provinces, Mr Juppe chose to introduce his plan in the southern port city of Marseilles against the a backdrop of some of the worst slums in France.